Studies on the evolutionary process of lignin biosynthesis in land plants

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24580497
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied molecular and cellular biology
• Research Institution: Osaka Prefecture University
• Principal Investigator: DISK Ohta 大阪府立大学, 生命環境科学研究科(系), 教授 (10305659)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: リグニン / シトクロムP450 / メタボロミクス / 代謝工学 / ゼニゴケ / ヒメツリガネゴケ / シロイヌナズナ / 高等植物

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Land plant evolution is inseparable from metabolic pathway diversification. Particularly, it is probably true that the vascular plant evolution was strongly accelerated upon the acquisition of lignin. Aiming to clarify the evolution of lignin biosynthesis, we addressed the reason for the lack of lignin biosynthesis in moss. From genome information, we identified monolignol pathway genes for p－coumaroyl-CoA ligase, hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA:shikimate hydroxycinnamoyl transferase (HCT), and CYP98A in the mosses Physcomitrella and Marchantia, and we expressed and characterized recombinantly expressed enzymes. The HCTs from both mosses catalyzed the same reaction to yield p-coumaroly shikimic acid as reported with higher plant enzymes, while the moss CYP98A failed to accept p-coumaroly shikimic acid, the HCT reaction product. It is concluded that the evolutionary diversification of the CYP98A substrate reactivity was the key event to produce monolignol in vascular plants.

Free Research Field

応用分子生物学