Metabolic engineering of coenzyme Q by modification of isoprenoid side chain in plant

Abstract

Coenzyme Q (CoQ), an electron transfer molecule in the respiratory chain and a lipid-soluble antioxidant, is present in almost all organisms. Most cereal crops produce CoQ9, which has nine isoprene units. CoQ10, with 10 isoprene units, is a very popular food supplement. Here, we report the genetic engineering of rice to produce CoQ10 using the gene for decaprenyl diphosphate synthase (DdsA). The production of CoQ9 was almost completely replaced with that of CoQ10, despite the presence of endogenous CoQ9 synthesis. DdsA designed to express at the mitochondria increased accumulation of total CoQ amount in seeds.

Nourishing and health benefits of coenzyme Q₁₀

“…For example: in natural rice (Takahashi et al 2006) and in cereals (Mattila & Takahashi et al (2006) modified the lenght of the side chain of CoQ from 9 to 10 units by expressing DdsA (decaprenyl diphosphate synthetase) to produce CoQ 10 in rice. They showed that in the leaves and seeds of transgenic rice CoQ 10 is predominantly produced.…”

Development of CoQ10-enriched rice from giant embryo lines

“…In Nipponbare-type CoQ10-enriched rice plants, CoQ10 mainly accumulated instead of CoQ9, and seed CoQ10 content of CoQ10-enriched rice plants was up to 10 times that of wild-type rice (Takahashi et al 2006 We previously reported very low CoQ9 content of milled rice (Takahashi et al 2006), whereas Kamei et al (1986) reported high CoQ9 content of rice bran and wheat germ. These data suggest that a large portion of the CoQ9 in rice seed is localized in bran and germ.…”

“…Nipponbare, with normal-sized embryos, was used as a reference. We previously reported the production of Nipponbare-type CoQ10-enriched rice plants (Nipponbare-type S14:ddsA plants; N-S14:ddsA plants) (Takahashi et al 2006, referred to as S14:ddsA plants); in this study we used T 0 plants and their self-pollinated seeds. Plants were grown in a naturally illuminated greenhouse at 27°C.…”

“…In the old method, CoQ was extracted as described in Takahashi et al (2006) except for omitting of TLC development. 100-mg of dehulled seeds were ground with mortar and pestle into fine powder and pre-treated with 2 ml of 3% H 2 S and 20 µl of 250 µg/ml CoQ6 (an internal control) at 120°C, 1 atom for 30 min, and then 4 ml of 14% NaOH at 120°C, 1 atom for 15 min.…”

Metabolic engineering for biofortification of lipophilic antioxidants in plants

“…이 문제는 열매에서 특이적으로 박테리아 CrtB를 발현시 킴으로써 해결되었다 (Fraser et al 2002). (Takahashi et al 2006(Takahashi et al , 2009(Takahashi et al , 2010 …”