Plant alkaloid production system using fungi as host organism

Research Project

Project/Area Number	25670046
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Natural medicines
Research Institution	Iwate Medical University
Principal Investigator	Fujii Isao 岩手医科大学, 薬学部, 教授 (70181302)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	ASANO Takashi 岩手医科大学, 薬学部, 助教 (10552888) HASHIMOTO Makoto 岩手医科大学, 薬学部, 助教 (80552893)
Project Period (FY)	2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2015)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,770,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥870,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000) Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000) Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
Keywords	アルカロイド / 生合成
Outline of Final Research Achievements	To utilize high productivity of secondary metabolites of fungi, construction of benzyl isoquinoline alkaloids biosynthesis system in Aspergillus oryzae was attempted. Expression plasmids of tyrsinase, monoamine oxidase, tyrosine decarboxylase, and norcoclaurine synthase genes were constructed. These plasmids were introduced into the host fungus A. oryzae by transformation. Analysis of induction culture products of transformants did not give any detectable benzyl isoquinoline alkaloids. Thus the direction of study was changed to isolate endophyte fungi producing alkaloids from alkaloid producing plants. So far some endophyte fungi were obtained from Amaryllidaceae plants.