高等植物中维生素C的功能、合成及代谢研究进展

植物体内合成的维生素C在植物抗氧化和自由基清除、光合作用和光保护、细胞生长和分裂以及一些重要次生代谢物和乙烯的合成等方面具有非常重要的生理功能.维生素C的生物合成途径及其代谢调控的基因工程研究最近取得了突破.     

类胡萝卜素合成的相关基因及其基因工程

类胡萝卜素具有多种生物功能,尤其在保护人类健康方面起着重要的作用,如它们是合成维生素A的前体,能够增强人体免疫力和具有防癌抗癌的功效。人体自身不能合成类胡萝卜素,必须通过外界摄入;但类胡萝卜素在许多植物中含量较低,并且很难用化学方法合成。随着类胡萝卜素生物合成途径的阐明及其相关基因的克隆,运用基因工程手段调控类胡萝卜素的生物合成已成为可能。本文综述了微生物和高等植物类胡萝卜素生物合成途径中相关基因的克隆,以及运用这些基因通过异源微生物生产类胡萝卜素和提高作物类胡萝卜素含量的基因工程研究进展。     

微生物合成黄酮糖苷类天然产物研究进展

黄酮糖苷类天然产物是植物中黄酮类化合物的主要存在形式,通过糖基化修饰,可以改变其水溶性、稳定性等,赋予其新的生物活性和功能。黄酮类化合物的糖基化修饰通常由植物源或微生物源的糖基转移酶催化,根据糖基的位置、类型和数量的不同,可形成多种类型的黄酮糖苷类产物。随着合成生物学和代谢工程的快速发展,在微生物中合成植物源黄酮糖苷类天然产物取得了重要进展。综述了糖基转移酶的聚类分析及糖基供体的途径改造,并对代谢工程优化黄酮糖苷类天然产物的微生物合成进行了分析讨论,并对其发展前景进行了展望。     

高等植物中维生素C 的功能、合成及代谢研究进展

植物体内合成的维生素C在植物抗氧化和自由基清除、光合作用和光保护、细胞生长和分裂以及一些重要次生代谢物和乙烯的合成等方面具有非常重要的生理功能。维生素C的生物合成途径及其代谢调控的基因工程研究最近取得了突破。     

维生素B12生物合成基因的克隆技术

美国Genex公司的研究人员克隆了11种编码巨大芽孢杆菌(Bacillus megaterium)中维生素B12生物合成途径上有关酶的基因,这是一项开发维生素B12高产微生物的专利计划的一部分。这11种基因占整个维生素B12生物合成途径所涉及的20～30基因的很大一部分。巨大芽孢杆菌的一个菌株当它自己合成维生素B12时,可以利用乙醇胺作为单一的氮源。该菌株的许多突变体在维生素B12生物合成途径的某处出现缺陷,因此这些突变体就不能在     

芳香族香料化合物生物合成研究进展

芳香族化合物在香料中占很大的比重,传统生产方式有化学合成和植物提取。化学合成依赖于石油资源,并具有环境不友好、反应条件恶劣等缺点。植物提取方法受限于植物资源,且占用耕地。近年来,随着代谢工程和合成生物学技术的发展,利用可再生原料,微生物合成芳香族香料化合物成为一种新的生产方式。文中介绍了大肠杆菌和酵母菌等模式微生物合成芳香族香料的研究进展,包括利用莽草酸途径合成香兰素等,聚酮途径合成覆盆子酮等。综述重点介绍了生物合成途径解析、人工合成途径创建及代谢调控等,为微生物发酵法生产芳香族香料化合物提供参考。     

天然维生素E的研究进展

维生素E是一类脂溶性、具抗氧化功能的维生素,按其来源可分为天然维生素E和人工合成维生素E.对天然维生素E的功能、生物合成途径以及相关酶基因的研究方面进行了综述.其中,维生素E合成相关酶基因已经克隆及定位,尤其VTE5的发现,为生育酚合成研究开辟了一条新途径.人们已经开始利用基因工程技术研究提高植物天然维生素E产量的方法.     

植物三萜皂苷生物合成途径及调控机制研究进展

三萜皂苷是一类天然存在的结构多样的三萜苷类化合物,广泛分布于植物中.三萜皂苷不仅是植物抵御病原微生物和食草动物的防御化合物,还具有多种药理活性,被广泛应用在医药、日化、食品、农业等领域.近年来,随着科学技术的发展和研究的深入,植物三萜皂苷生物合成途径的基本框架及调控机制研究已经取得了一定的进展.植物三萜皂苷种类繁多、结构复杂,虽然有着共同的前体合成途径,但后修饰阶段具有高度特异性和多样性.本文综述了三萜皂苷的生物合成途径、关键酶基因、转录调控以及微生物细胞工程方面的研究进展,并对今后的发展方向进行了展望,以期为相关领域的研究提供参考.     

鬼臼毒素及其衍生物生物合成研究进展

鬼臼毒素(Podophyllotoxin,PTOX)是来源于中药八角莲、山荷叶和桃儿七等鬼臼属植物的芳基四氢萘类木脂素。其化学半合成衍生物依托泊苷和替尼泊苷被用于多种癌症的临床治疗。作为天然产物来源新药创制的典型代表,鬼臼毒素目前依赖天然提取,供求矛盾日渐突出。生物合成具有不受资源限制、反应条件友好等优势,是鬼臼毒素及其衍生物生产的新方式。文中总结了鬼臼毒素在植物中的生物合成途径的研究进展,阐述了合成途径中关键酶的功能及其亚细胞定位,进而介绍了以模式植物烟草为底盘的鬼臼毒素合成生物学研究。最后总结了利用微生物对鬼臼毒素进行异源表达及生物转化的研究进展,以期为利用微生物细胞工厂高效合成鬼臼毒素及其衍生物提供参考。     

生长素合成途径的研究进展

生长素是一类含有一个不饱和芳香族环和一个乙酸侧链的内源激素, 参与植物生长发育的许多过程。植物和一些侵染植物的病原微生物都可以通过改变生长素的合成来调节植株的生长。吲哚-3-乙酸(IAA)是天然植物生长素的主要活性成分。近年来, 随着IAA生物合成过程中一些关键调控基因的克隆和功能分析, 人们对IAA的生物合成途径有了更加深入的认识。IAA的生物合成有依赖色氨酸和非依赖色氨酸两条途径。依据IAA合成的中间产物不同, 依赖色氨酸的生物合成过程通常又划分成4条支路: 吲哚乙醛肟途径、吲哚丙酮酸途径、色胺途径和吲哚乙酰胺途径。该文综述了近几年在IAA生物合成方面取得的新进展。     

Vitamin production in transgenic plants

Plants are a major source of vitamins in the human diet. Due to their significance for human health and development, research has been initiated to understand the biosynthesis of vitamins in plants. The pathways that are furthest advanced in elucidation are those of provitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E. There is little knowledge about the regulation, storage, sink and degradation of any vitamin made in plants, or the interaction of vitamin biosynthetic pathways with other metabolic pathways. Researchers as well as life science companies have endeavoured to manipulate levels of vitamins in order to create functional food with enhanced health benefits, and even with the goal of achieving levels worth extracting from plant tissues. Thus far, metabolic engineering has resulted in transgenic plants that contain elevated levels of provitamin A, vitamin C and E, respectively. Additional research is necessary to identify all relevant target genes in order to further improve and tailor plants with elevated vitamin contents at will.     

Vitamin B biosynthesis in plants

The vitamin B complex comprises water-soluble enzyme cofactors and their derivatives that are essential contributors to diverse metabolic processes in plants as well as in animals and microorganisms. Seven vitamins form this complex: B1 (thiamin (1)), B2 (riboflavin (2)), B3 (niacin (3)), B5 (pantothenic acid (4)), B6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxal (5), and pyridoxamine), B8 (biotin (6)), and B9 (folate (7)). All seven B vitamins are required in the human diet for proper nutrition because humans lack enzymes to synthesize these compounds de novo. This review aims to summarize the present knowledge of vitamin B biosynthesis in plants.     

Production of high-value compounds: carotenoids and vitamin E

The unraveling in recent years of the pathways and genes that are responsible for biosynthesis of vitamins and carotenoids in plants has provided new molecular tools that can be utilized to genetically modify the content and composition of these compounds in vivo. There have been recent examples of successful manipulation of carotenoid composition and vitamin E activity in plants using gene-transfer technology.     

Mitochondrial function and toxicity: role of B vitamins on the one-carbon transfer pathways

The B vitamins are water-soluble vitamins that are required as coenzymes for reactions essential for cellular function. This review focuses on the essential role of vitamins in maintaining the one-carbon transfer cycles. Folate and choline are believed to be central methyl donors required for mitochondrial protein and nucleic acid synthesis through their active forms, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate and betaine, respectively. Cobalamin (B12) may assist methyltetrahydrofolate in the synthesis of methionine, a cysteine source for glutathione biosynthesis. Pyridoxal, pyridoxine and pyridoxamine (B6) seem to be involved in the regeneration of tetrahydrofolate into the active methyl-bearing form and in glutathione biosynthesis from homocysteine. Other roles of these vitamins that are relevant to mitochondrial functions will also be discussed. However these roles for B vitamins in cell function are mostly theoretically based and still require verification at the cellular level. For instance it is still not known what B vitamins are depleted by xenobiotic toxins or which cellular targets, metabolic pathways or molecular toxic mechanisms are prevented by B vitamins. This review covers the current state of knowledge and suggests where this research field is heading so as to better understand the role vitamin Bs play in cellular function and intermediary metabolism as well as molecular, cellular and clinical consequences of vitamin deficiency. The current experimental and clinical evidence that supplementation alleviates deficiency symptoms as well as the effectiveness of vitamins as antioxidants will also be reviewed.     

Vitamin and cofactor biosynthesis pathways in Plasmodium and other apicomplexan parasites

Vitamins are essential components of the human diet. By contrast, the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and related apicomplexan parasites synthesize certain vitamins de novo, either completely or in parts. The various biosynthesis pathways are specific to different apicomplexan parasites and emphasize the distinct requirements of these parasites for nutrients and growth factors. The absence of vitamin biosynthesis in humans implies that inhibition of the parasite pathways might be a way to interfere specifically with parasite development. However, the roles of biosynthesis and uptake of vitamins in the regulation of vitamin homeostasis in parasites needs to be established first. In this article, the procurement of vitamins B(1), B(5) and B(6) by Plasmodium and other apicomplexan parasites is discussed.     

Plants need their vitamins too

Over recent years, the pathways for the biosynthesis of many vitamins have been elucidated at the molecular level in plants, and several unique features are emerging. One is that the mitochondrion plays an important role in the synthesis of folate (vitamin B9), biotin (B7), pantothenate (B5), ascorbate (C), and possibly thiamin (B1). Second, the production of some of these cofactors is regulated by developmental cues, and perhaps more surprisingly, by environmental signals such as high light and salinity. Moreover, the biosynthesis of thiamin in Arabidopsis may be negatively regulated by a riboswitch, a novel method of gene regulation that is characteristic of cofactor biosynthesis in bacteria. Vitamin B12 is unique in that it is not found in vascular plants, but is abundant in algae; recent molecular work has revealed that algae do not synthesise the vitamin but instead obtain it from bacteria.     

Plant amino acid-derived vitamins: biosynthesis and function

Vitamins are essential organic compounds for humans, having lost the ability to de novo synthesize them. Hence, they represent dietary requirements, which are covered by plants as the main dietary source of most vitamins (through food or livestock’s feed). Most vitamins synthesized by plants present amino acids as precursors (B₁, B₂, B₃, B₅, B₇, B₉ and E) and are therefore linked to plant nitrogen metabolism. Amino acids play different roles in their biosynthesis and metabolism, either incorporated into the backbone of the vitamin or as amino, sulfur or one-carbon group donors. There is a high natural variation in vitamin contents in crops and its exploitation through breeding, metabolic engineering and agronomic practices can enhance their nutritional quality. While the underlying biochemical roles of vitamins as cosubstrates or cofactors are usually common for most eukaryotes, the impact of vitamins B and E in metabolism and physiology can be quite different on plants and animals. Here, we first aim at giving an overview of the biosynthesis of amino acid-derived vitamins in plants, with a particular focus on how this knowledge can be exploited to increase vitamin contents in crops. Second, we will focus on the functions of these vitamins in both plants and animals (and humans in particular), to unravel common and specific roles for vitamins in evolutionary distant organisms, in which these amino acid-derived vitamins play, however, an essential role.     

高等植物维生素C和维生素E代谢调控

维生素C和维生素E是植物自身合成的抗氧化剂,对植物发育具有重要调控作用。本文对近年来高等植物维生素C和维生素E合成途径、代谢调控、关键酶基因的克隆和转化进行了论述,分析两种维生素之间的相互作用,对该领域未来的研究方向进行了展望。