Functional Genomics and the Biosynthesis of Artemisinin

Abstract

ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 200 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract, please click on HTML or PDF.

Chitosan oligosaccharide and salicylic acid up-regulate gene expression differently in relation to the biosynthesis of artemisinin in Artemisia annua L.

“…1) controls important steps of the artemisinin biosynthetic pathway [7], and were chosen to investigate the effect of SA and COS treatments on the transcription. In the present study, SA treatment significantly up-regulated the ADS expression, but CPR and CYP expression was not affected by SA (Fig.…”

“…Afterwards, artemisinic acid or its hydrogenated product dihydroartemisinic acid is transformed to artemisinin (Fig. 1) [7]. Later on, some additional genes, which affect the artemisinin biosynthetic pathway, have been identified.…”

“…1. Artemisinin biosynthetic pathway, adapted from [7]. AaWRKY1: A. annua WRKY transcription factor 1; ADS: amorpha-4,11-diene synthase; CPR: cytochrome P450 reductase; CYP: cytochrome P450 monoxygenase; DBR: artemisinic aldehyde 11 (13) reductase.…”

Biosynthesis of artemisinin – revisited

“…In order to achieve higher targets through in vivo and in vitro systems, the knowledge of biosynthetic pathway from the earliest precursors to artemisinin is essential. A lot of publications have come up over the last 25 years giving information on the biosynthesis of artemisinin (21) (Akhila et al 1987;Schramek et al 2010) artemisinic acid (14) (Akhila et al 1990;Covello et al 2007), and amorphadiene (Bouwmeester et al 1999) by using 14 C and 13 C-labeled precursors. The complete pathway to artemisinin can be divided into three steps: (1) biosynthesis of farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP, 9) from CO 2 , acetate, glucose, and isopentenylpyrophosphate (IPP, 6)/dimethylallylpyrophosphate (DMAPP, 7) (C 5 units) through the mevalonic acid (MVA) or non-MVA pathways; (2) cyclization of FPP (9) to amorphadiene (13); and (3) biosynthesis of artemisinic acid (14), dihydroartemisinic acid (15), and artemisinin (21) from amorphadiene (13).…”

A glandular trichome-specific monoterpene alcohol dehydrogenase from Artemisia annua

“…The major components of A. annua essential oil are monoand sesquiterpenes (Ma et al, 2007), and they are thought to be biosynthesized within glandular trichomes (Duke et al, 1993, Olsson et al, 2009, Tellez et al, 1999. The sesquiterpenes in A. annua, in particular, the anti-malarial compound artemisinin and related compounds, have been studied extensively (Bertea et al, 2005, Covello et al, 2007, Ro et al, 2006, Teoh et al, 2006, Zhang et al, 2008. The proportion of the major essential oil components varies widely in different lines (or ecotypes) of A. annua.…”