Molecular mechanism of abundant biosynthesis and accumulation of ascorbic acid in tropical plant acerola.

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K07394
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied biochemistry
• Research Institution: Hiroshima University
• Principal Investigator: Esaka Muneharu 広島大学, 生物圏科学研究科, 教授 (70151975)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: アスコルビン酸 / アセロラ / 遺伝子発現 / 遺伝子組換え / ビタミンC / プロモーター / 転写調節

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Ascorbic acid is an antioxidant, which is abundantly contained within the plant cell, and plays important roles in plants. Plants have some pathways for ascorbic acid biosynthesis. The mechanism for biosynthesis regulation of plant ascorbic acid attracts so much attention.
Acerola (Malpighia glabra L.) is one of the richest known natural sources of ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Thus, the gene expression of ascorbic acid-biosynthetic enzymes is markedly high in acerola. Molecular mechanism of the high expression of the ascorbic acid biosynthetic enzyme gene became clear partially.　Acerola genes for ascorbic acid-biosynthetic enzymes were introduced and over-expressed to generate transgenic plants containing a large amount of ascorbic acid. Finally, this research will lead to generation of stress-resistant transgenic plants with high ascorbic acid contents.

Free Research Field

応用生物化学　酵素化学　植物分子生物学