Tocopherols are lipid-soluble compounds synthesized only by photosynthetic eukaryotes and oxygenic cyanobacteria. The pathway and enzymes for tocopherol synthesis are homologous in cyanobacteria and plants except for 2-methyl-6-phytyl-1,4-benzoquinone/2-methyl-6-solanyl-1,4-benzoquinone methyltransferase (MPBQ/MSBQ MT), which catalyzes a key methylation step in both tocopherol and plastoquinone (PQ) synthesis. Using a combined genomic, genetic, and biochemical approach, we isolated and characterized the VTE3 (vitamin E defective) locus, which encodes MPBQ/MSBQ MT in Arabidopsis. The phenotypes of vte3 mutants are consistent with the disruption of MPBQ/MSBQ MT activity to varying extents. The ethyl methanesulfonate–derived vte3-1 allele alters tocopherol composition but has little impact on PQ levels, whereas the null vte3-2 allele is deficient in PQ and α- and γ-tocopherols. In vitro enzyme assays confirmed that VTE3 is the plant functional equivalent of the previously characterized MPBQ/MSBQ MT (Sll0418) from Synechocystis sp PCC6803, although the two proteins are highly divergent in primary sequence. Sll0418 orthologs are present in all fully sequenced cyanobacterial genomes, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana but absent from vascular and nonvascular plant databases. VTE3 orthologs are present in all vascular and nonvascular plant databases and in C. reinhardtii but absent from cyanobacterial genomes. Intriguingly, the only prokaryotic genomes that contain VTE3-like sequences are those of two species of archea, suggesting that, in contrast to all other enzymes of the plant tocopherol pathway, the evolutionary origin of VTE3 may have been archeal rather than cyanobacterial. In vivo analyses of vte3 mutants and the corresponding homozygous Synechocystis sp PCC6803 sll0418::aphII mutant revealed important differences in enzyme redundancy, the regulation of tocopherol synthesis, and the integration of tocopherol and PQ biosynthesis in cyanobacteria and plants.
chocystis
PCC6800的
基因组分析表明,VTE3编码的M
PBQ/MSBQ
MT在拟南芥中具有多种功能。vte3突变体的表型与M
PBQ/MSBQ
MT活性在不同程度上的破坏相一致。
甲基磺酸乙酯衍生的vte3-1等位
基因改变了
生育酚的组成,但对PQ
水平的影响不大,而无效的vte3-2等位
基因缺乏PQ和α-
生育酚和γ-
生育酚。体外酶分析证实,VTE3是植物功能等同于先前从Synechocystis sp
PCC6803中鉴定的M
PBQ/MSBQ
MT(Sll0418),尽管这两种蛋白质在主要序列上差异很大。Sll0418同源物存在于所有完全测序的蓝藻
基因组、Chlamydomonas reinhardtii和
硅藻Thalassiosira pseudonana中,但不存在于维管植物和非维管植物数据库中。VTE3同源物存在于所有维管植物和非维管植物数据库以及C. reinhardtii中,但不存在于蓝藻
基因组中。有趣的是,唯一含有VTE3样序列的原核
生物基因组是两种古细菌的
基因组,这表明与植物
生育酚途径的所有其他酶相反,VTE3的进化起源可能是古细菌而不是蓝藻