A new breakthrough in the biosynthesis of tropine alkaloids

Anisodamine and scopolamine are important anticholinergic drugs, which belong to tropine alkaloids Molecular biology and metabolic engineering of tropine alkaloid biosynthesis have been the focus of plant secondary metabolic engineering Recently, Professor Liao Zhihua's research team from the school of life sciences of Southwest University has made a breakthrough in the study of the biosynthesis of tropine alkaloids The research results were published online in the organic letters on December 4 Professor Liao Zhihua's team adopted multidisciplinary research methods to study belladonna Atropa, a medicinal plant of Solanaceae The Phenylpyruvate reductase gene abppar was isolated and identified in belladonna The gene was specifically expressed in the central sheath and endothelial layer of fibrous roots Its protein can effectively catalyze the reduction of Phenylpyruvate to phenyllactate, inhibit the gene expression in the transgenic hairy roots, resulting in a significant reduction of phenyllactate and TAs biosynthesis The results confirmed that abppar participated in TAS biosynthesis The discovery and functional analysis of abppar further improved the biosynthesis pathway of TAs, and provided important essential genes for the production of TAs by synthetic biological technology The research was supported by NSFC, and the related research paper "a phylpyruvic acid reduce is required for biosynthesis of tropine alkaloids" was published in the international famous journal organic Letters, Qiu Fei, Ph.D student in Botany, is the first author of the paper, and Professor Liao Zhihua is the corresponding author Professor Liao Zhihua's team has long been engaged in the research and industrialization of the synthetic biology and metabolic regulation of plant natural products In recent years, he has published more than ten research papers as a corresponding author in some famous journals such as molecular plant, Journal of Experimental Botany and phytochemistry, and obtained 10 authorized patents; related technologies and products of scopolamine have been invested by Southwest University as technology shares, and a cooperative development agreement has been signed with Chengdu Xinshang Venture Capital Co., Ltd.