Magnolia grandiflora (Southern Magnolia) is a primitive evergreen tree that has attracted attention because of its horticultural distinctiveness, the wealth of natural products associated with it, and its evolutionary position as a basal angiosperm. Three cDNAs corresponding to terpene synthase (TPS) genes expressed in young leaves were isolated, and the corresponding enzymes were functionally characterized in vitro. Recombinant Mg25 converted farnesyl diphosphate (C15) predominantly to β-cubebene, while Mg17 converted geranyl diphosphate (C5) to α-terpineol. Efforts to functionally characterize Mg11 were unsuccessful. Transcript levels for all three genes were prominent in young leaf tissue and significantly elevated for Mg25 and Mg11 messenger RNAs in stamens. A putative amino-terminal signal peptide of Mg17 targeted the reporter green fluorescent protein to both chloroplasts and mitochondria when transiently expressed in epidermal cells of Nicotiana tabacum leaves. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that Mg25 and Mg11 belonged to the angiosperm sesquiterpene synthase subclass TPS-a, while Mg17 aligned more closely to the angiosperm monoterpene synthase subclass TPS-b. Unexpectedly, the intron-exon organizations for the three Magnolia TPS genes were different from one another and from other well-characterized TPS gene sets. The Mg17 gene consists of six introns arranged in a manner similar to many other angiosperm sesquiterpene synthases, but Mg11 contains only four introns, and Mg25 has only a single intron located near the 5′ terminus of the gene. Our results suggest that the structural diversity observed in the Magnolia TPS genes could have occurred either by a rapid loss of introns from a common ancestor TPS gene or by a gain of introns into an intron-deficient progenote TPS gene.
大花玉兰(Southern Magnolia)是一种原始的常绿树,因其园艺特性、与之相关的丰富自然产物以及其作为基部被子植物的进化位置而受到关注。从年轻叶子中分离出了三个对应于萜类合成酶(TPS)基因的cDNA,并在体外对应的酶进行了功能特性化。重组Mg25主要将芬醇二磷酸(C15)转化为β-烯丙基苯,而Mg17将香叶醇二磷酸(C5)转化为α-萜芳醇。对Mg11进行功能特性化的努力没有成功。所有三个基因的转录本水平在年轻的叶组织中很突出,并且Mg25和Mg11信使RNA在雄蕊中显著升高。Mg17的一个推测的氨基端信号肽在暂时表达于烟草叶表皮细胞中时,将报告绿色荧光蛋白定位到叶绿体和线粒体中。系统发育分析表明,Mg25和Mg11属于被子植物倍半萜合成酶亚类TPS-a,而Mg17更接近于被子植物单萜合成酶亚类TPS-b。令人意外的是,这三个大花玉兰TPS基因的内含子 - 外显子组织结构彼此不同,也不同于其他经过充分特征化的TPS基因组。Mg17基因由6个内含子组成,排列方式类似于许多其他被子植物倍半萜合成酶,但是Mg11仅包含4个内含子,而Mg25仅有一个内含子位于基因的5'端附近。我们的结果表明,大花玉兰TPS基因的结构多样性可能是由于从共同祖先TPS基因中快速丢失内含子或将内含子增加到内含子缺乏的前体TPS基因中而发生的。
Sesquiterpene synthases are responsible for the cyclization of farnesyl pyrophosphate into a myriad of structurally diverse compounds with various biological activities. We examine here the role of the conserved active site H-α1 loop in catalysis in three previously characterized fungal sesquiterpene synthases. The H-α1 loops of Cop3, Cop4, and Cop6 from