College of Biochemical Engineering, Beijing Union University, Beijing 100023, China.
Molecules. 2022 Aug 25;27(17):5442. doi: 10.3390/molecules27175442.
Berberine (BBR), a Chinese herbal medicine used in intestinal infection, has been applied as a botanical pesticide in the prevention of fungal disease in recent years. However, its degradation in the environment remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated BBR's degradation in soil water from different sources accompanied by its effect on bacterial diversity. Our results indicated that BBR was only degraded in soil water, while it was stable in tap water, river water and aquaculture water. Bacterial amplicon results of these samples suggested that the degradation of BBR was closely related to the enrichment of . To reveal this special relationship, we used bioinformatics tools to make alignments between the whole genome of and the pathway of BBR's degradation. An ortholog of Tetrahydroisoquinoline N-methyltransferase from plant was discovered only in that catalyzed a crucial step in BBR's degradation pathway. In summary, our work indicated that was an essential bacterial genus in the degradation of BBR in the environment because of its Tetrahydroisoquinoline N-methyltransferase. This study provided new insights into BBR's degradation in the environment, laying foundations for its application as a botanical pesticide.
小檗碱（BBR）是一种用于肠道感染的中草药，近年来已被用作植物源农药来预防真菌病。然而，其在环境中的降解情况仍了解甚少。在此，我们研究了 BBR 在不同来源的水土中的降解情况及其对细菌多样性的影响。结果表明，BBR 仅在土壤水中降解，而在自来水、河水和养殖水中稳定。这些样品的细菌扩增子结果表明，BBR 的降解与 的富集密切相关。为了揭示这种特殊关系，我们使用生物信息学工具对 和 BBR 降解途径的全基因组进行比对。我们仅在 中发现了来自植物的四氢异喹啉 N-甲基转移酶的同源物，该酶催化了 BBR 降解途径中的一个关键步骤。总之，由于其四氢异喹啉 N-甲基转移酶， 是 BBR 在环境中降解的必需细菌属。这项研究为 BBR 在环境中的降解提供了新的见解，为其作为植物源农药的应用奠定了基础。
