Nature Biotechnology
- 24, 1441 - 1447 (2006)
Published online: 22 October 2006; | doi:10.1038/nbt1251
Redirection of cytosolic or plastidic isoprenoid precursors elevates terpene production in plantsShuiqin Wu1, Michel Schalk2, Anthony Clark2, R Brandon Miles3, Robert Coates3 & Joe Chappell11
Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40546-0312, USA. 2
Corporate R&D Division, Firmenich SA, Geneva, CH-1211 Switzerland. 3
Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801 USA.
Correspondence should be addressed to Joe Chappell chappell@uky.edu Terpenes constitute a distinct class of natural products1 that attract insects2, defend against phytopathogenic microbes3 and combat human diseases4. However, like most natural products, they are usually made by plants and microbes in small amounts and as complex mixtures. Chemical synthesis is often costly and inefficient, and may not yield enantiomerically pure terpenes, whereas large-scale microbial production requires expensive feedstocks. We engineered high-level terpene production in tobacco plants by diverting carbon flow from cytosolic or plastidic isopentenyl diphosphate through overexpression in either compartment of an avian farnesyl diphosphate synthase and an appropriate terpene synthase. Isotopic labeling studies suggest little, if any, metabolite exchange between these two subcellular compartments. The strategy increased synthesis of the sesquiterpenes patchoulol and amorpha-4,11-diene more than 1,000-fold, as well as the monoterpene limonene 10–30 fold, and seems equally suited to generating higher levels of other terpenes for research, industrial production or therapeutic applications.
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