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Nicotine Biosynthesis, Transport, and Regulation in Tobacco: Insights into the Evolution of a Metabolic Pathway

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The Tobacco Plant Genome

Part of the book series: Compendium of Plant Genomes ((CPG))

Abstract

In Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco), nicotine and related pyridine alkaloids are produced in the roots and accumulate mainly in the leaves. Molecular analyses of nicotine biosynthesis, especially of the steps involved in pyrrolidine and pyridine formation, suggest that this specialized pathway evolved through repeated duplication of primary pathways, followed by the recruitment of the metabolic genes into a regulon. In tobacco, jasmonates elicit nicotine formation via a conserved signaling cascade anchored to the downstream nicotine biosynthesis pathway by master transcription factors of the ERF family, particularly ERF189 and its homolog ERF199. ERF transcription factors upregulate metabolic and transport genes directly involved in the pathway by recognizing cis-elements in the promoters of target genes. A pair of homologous clusters of related ERF genes, including ERF189 and ERF199, occurs in the tobacco genome. ERF189 corresponds to the nicotine-controlling NIC2 locus. A large chromosomal deletion of the cluster that includes ERF189, as found in the nic2 mutant allele, has been exploited to breed low-nicotine tobacco.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dr. Takashi Hashimoto of Nara Institute of Science and Technology for his collaboration and support. Research in the author’s group was supported in part by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 17K07447) to TS.

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  1. Graduate School of Biological Sciences, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Takayama 8916-5, Ikoma, Nara, 630-0101, Japan

    Tsubasa Shoji

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  1. Tsubasa Shoji
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Correspondence to Tsubasa Shoji .

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  1. PMI R&D, Philip Morris Products S.A., Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Nikolai V. Ivanov

  2. PMI R&D, Philip Morris Products S.A., Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Nicolas Sierro

  3. PMI R&D, Philip Morris Products S.A., Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Manuel C. Peitsch

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Shoji, T. (2020). Nicotine Biosynthesis, Transport, and Regulation in Tobacco: Insights into the Evolution of a Metabolic Pathway. In: Ivanov, N.V., Sierro, N., Peitsch, M.C. (eds) The Tobacco Plant Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29493-9_9

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