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Enhancing Taxol Biosynthesis by Overexpressing a 9-Cis-Epoxycarotenoid Dioxygenase Gene in Transgenic Cell Lines of Taxus chinensis

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Abstract

Plant secondary metabolites constitute are a wide range of compounds whose biosynthesis takes place in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) acts as an important signaling molecule that regulates plant response to various stresses. Moreover, 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED) is one of the key enzymes in the ABA biosynthesis pathway in higher plants. In this study, a new NCED gene from Taxus chinensis, the TcNCED1, was overexpressed in transgenic T. chinensis cells, resulting in a maximum of 48 % more accumulation of ABA and a 2.7-fold increase of taxol production compared to the untransformed cells, respectively. These results indicate that overexpression of TcNCED1 can significantly increase the ABA and taxol level in T. chinensis cells, which probably provides an alternative approach in metabolic engineering to improve the yield of taxol in T. chinensis cells through genetic manipulation of the related genes in the ABA biosynthetic pathway.

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Abbreviations

NCED:

9-Cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase

ABA:

Abscisic acid

Real-time Q-PCR:

Real-time quantitative PCR

CaMV:

Cauliflower mosaic virus

HPLC:

High-performance liquid chromatography

TS:

Taxadiene synthase

DBAT:

10-Deacetylbaccatin III-10β-O-acetytransferase

BAPT:

3-Amino-3-phenylpropanoyltransferase

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 20776058, 200906036), the Graduate Practice Base of Innovation and Enterprise fund (HF09132011170), and the National “11th Five-Year Plan” to Support Science and Technology Project of China (2008BAI63B04).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Resource Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Biotechnology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Shu-tao Li, Chun-hua Fu, Meng Zhang, Yu Zhang, Sha Xie & Long-jiang Yu

  2. Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics Ministry of Education, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

    Shu-tao Li, Chun-hua Fu, Meng Zhang, Yu Zhang, Sha Xie & Long-jiang Yu

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  1. Shu-tao Li
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  2. Chun-hua Fu
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  3. Meng Zhang
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  4. Yu Zhang
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  5. Sha Xie
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  6. Long-jiang Yu
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Correspondence to Long-jiang Yu.

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Li, St., Fu, Ch., Zhang, M. et al. Enhancing Taxol Biosynthesis by Overexpressing a 9-Cis-Epoxycarotenoid Dioxygenase Gene in Transgenic Cell Lines of Taxus chinensis . Plant Mol Biol Rep 30, 1125–1130 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-012-0436-4

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