Independent recruitment of an O-methyltransferase for syringyl lignin biosynthesis in Selaginella moellendorffii

Syringyl lignin, an important component of the secondary cell wall, has traditionally been considered to be a hallmark of angiosperms because ferns and gymnosperms in general lack lignin of this type. Interestingly, syringyl lignin was also detected in Selaginella, a genus that represents an extant lineage of the most basal of the vascular plants, the lycophytes. In angiosperms, syringyl lignin biosynthesis requires the activity of ferulate 5-hydroxylase (F5H), a cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenase, and caffeic acid/5-hydroxyferulic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT). Together, these two enzymes divert metabolic flux from the biosynthesis of guaiacyl lignin, a lignin type common to all vascular plants, toward syringyl lignin. Selaginella has independently evolved an alternative lignin biosynthetic pathway in which syringyl subunits are directly derived from the precursors of p-hydroxyphenyl lignin, through the action of a dual specificity phenylpropanoid meta-hydroxylase, Sm F5H. Here, we report the characterization of an O-methyltransferase from Selaginella moellendorffii, COMT, the coding sequence of which is clustered together with F5H at the adjacent genomic locus. COMT is a bifunctional phenylpropanoid O-methyltransferase that can methylate phenylpropanoid meta-hydroxyls at both the 3- and 5-position and function in concert with F5H in syringyl lignin biosynthesis in S. moellendorffii. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that Sm COMT, like F5H, evolved independently from its angiosperm counterparts.