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Enhancing terpenoid indole alkaloid production by inducible expression of mammalian Bax in Catharanthus roseus cells

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Abstract

Bax, a mammalian pro-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family, triggers hypersensitive reactions when expressed in plants. To investigate the effects of Bax on the biosynthesis of clinically important natural products in plant cells, we generate transgenic Catharanthus roseus cells overexpressing a mouse Bax protein under the β-estradiol-inducible promoter. The expression of Bax in transgenic Catharanthus roseus cells is highly dependent on β-estradiol concentrations applied. Contents of catharanthine and total terpenoid indole alkaloid of the transgenic cells treated with 30 μmol/L β-estradiol are 5.0-and 5.5-fold of the control cells. Northern and Western blotting results show that expression of mammalian Bax induces transcriptional activation of Tdc and Str, two key genes in terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthetic pathway of Catharanthus roseus cells, and stimulates the accumulation of defense-related protein PR1 in the cells, showing that the mouse Bax triggers the defense responses of Catharanthus roseus cells and activates the terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthetic pathway. Thus, our data suggest that the mammalian Bax might be a potential regulatory factor for secondary metabolite biosynthesis in plant cells and imply a new secondary metabolic engineering strategy for enhancing the metabolic flux to natural products by activating the whole biosynthetic pathway rather than by engineering the single structural genes within the pathways.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, 310035, China

    Xu MaoJun & Dong JuFang

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  1. Xu MaoJun
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  2. Dong JuFang
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Correspondence to Xu MaoJun.

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Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30572331), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant No. 302785), and the Key Scientific Project of Zhejiang High Education Commission

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Xu, M., Dong, J. Enhancing terpenoid indole alkaloid production by inducible expression of mammalian Bax in Catharanthus roseus cells. SCI CHINA SER C 50, 234–241 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-007-0030-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-007-0030-4

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