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Improvement of vitamin E quality and quantity in tobacco and lettuce by chloroplast genetic engineering

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Abstract

Vitamin E (tocopherol: Toc) is an important lipid-soluble antioxidant synthesized in chloroplasts. Among the 8 isoforms of vitamin E, α-Toc has the highest activity in humans. To generate transgenic plants with enhanced vitamin E activity, we applied a chloroplast transformation technique. Three types of the transplastomic tobacco plants (pTTC, pTTMT and pTTC-TMT) carrying the Toc cyclase (TC) or γ-Toc methyltransferase (γ-TMT) gene and the TC plus γ-TMT genes as an operon in the plastid genome, respectively, were generated. There was a significant increase in total levels of Toc due to an increase in γ-Toc in the pTTC plants. Compared to the wild-type plants, Toc composition was altered in the pTTMT plants. In the pTTC-TMT plants, total Toc levels increased and α-Toc was a major Toc isoform. Furthermore, to use chloroplast transformation to produce α-Toc-rich vegetable, TC-overexpressing transplastomic lettuce plants (pLTC) were generated. Total Toc levels and vitamin E activity increased in the pLTC plants compared with the wild-type lettuce plants. These findings indicated that chloroplast genetic engineering is useful to improve vitamin E quality and quantity in plants.

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Abbreviations

DMPBQ:

2,3-dimethyl-5-phytyl-1,4-benzoquinone

HGA:

Homogentisic acid

HPT:

Homogentisate phytyltransferase

HPP:

p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate

HPPD:

p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase

MEP:

Methylerythritol phosphate

MPBQ:

2-methyl-6-phytylbenzoquinone

MPBQMT:

2-methyl-6-phytylbenzoquinone methyltransferase

Toc:

Tocopherol

TC:

Tocopherol cyclase

γ-TMT:

γ-tocopherol methyltransferase

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research (A) (S.S.: 22248042) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan, and in part by the Strategic Project to Support the Formation of Research Bases at Private Universities: Matching Fund Subsidy from MEXT, 2011-2015 (S1101035).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-minami, Tottori, 680-8550, Japan

    Yukinori Yabuta

  2. Department of Advanced Bioscience, Faculty of Agriculture, Kinki University, 3327-204 Nakamachi, Nara, 631-8505, Japan

    Hiroyuki Tanaka, Sahoko Yoshimura, Akiko Suzuki, Masahiro Tamoi, Takanori Maruta & Shigeru Shigeoka

  3. Faculty of Life and Environmental Science, Shimane University, 1060 Nishikawatsu Matsue, Shimane, 690-8504, Japan

    Takanori Maruta

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  1. Yukinori Yabuta
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  2. Hiroyuki Tanaka
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  3. Sahoko Yoshimura
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  4. Akiko Suzuki
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  5. Masahiro Tamoi
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  6. Takanori Maruta
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  7. Shigeru Shigeoka
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Correspondence to Shigeru Shigeoka.

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Yukinori Yabuta and Hiroyuki Tanaka contributed equally to this work.

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Yabuta, Y., Tanaka, H., Yoshimura, S. et al. Improvement of vitamin E quality and quantity in tobacco and lettuce by chloroplast genetic engineering. Transgenic Res 22, 391–402 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-012-9656-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-012-9656-5

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