类胡萝卜素的生物合成途径及生物学功能研究进展

类胡萝卜素具有重要的生物学功能,一直是研究的热点。综述近十年来对植物类胡萝卜素的生物合成途径,并对其生物学功能参与光系统的组装、非光化学猝灭、基因表达、抗氧化性和维持膜的稳定性等五个方面的研究进展作一介绍。     

植物类胡萝卜素生物合成及功能

详述了植物类胡萝卜素生物合成途径,并从突破类胡萝卜素合成途径中上游瓶颈限制、类胡萝卜素代谢各分支途径的改造、提高植物细胞对类胡萝卜素物质积累能力三个方面探讨了类胡萝卜素生物合成酶基因在植物基因工程中的研究现状,最后对植物类胡萝卜素代谢的研究前景进行了展望。     

类胡萝卜素生物合成相关基因的克隆及其遗传工程的研究进展

类胡萝卜素具有重要的生物学功能,尤其对人体健康有着更重要的作用,近年来一直是研究的热点。综述了类胡萝卜素生物合成途径及相关基因的分离,以及运用这些基因提高微生物和植物中类胡萝卜素含量的遗传工程研究进展。     

保幼激素生物合成研究进展

保幼激素（juvenile hormone,JH）是存在于昆虫、甲壳动物和部分植物体内的倍半萜类衍生物。在昆虫和甲壳动物体内,保幼激素主要调节变态和生殖活动。在植物体内,则可能作为异株克生物质发挥作用。保幼激素主要通过细胞质内的甲羟戊酸途径（MVA）合成,植物质体内存在萜类合成的1-去氧木糖-5-磷酸途径（DXP）。MVA和DXP途径通过单向质子协同运输系统进行协调,使DXP途径中形成的前体化合物参与MVA途径的倍半萜合成。JH生物合成的主要步骤己基本查明,但与合成相关的酶学研究还较薄弱。生物合成酶的分子生物学是近来研究的热点,相关酶的cDNA克隆已有报道。JH生物合成酶的进一步研究有助于查明JH生物合成调控机制,深化对节肢动物生殖的理解,还可为新型杀虫剂开发提供可能的靶标。     

天然类胡萝卜素生物合成与生物技术应用

类胡萝卜素是重要天然食用色素族群之一,它不仅可为食品添色,还具有较高营养保健价值。类胡萝卜素广泛存在于高等植物、藻类、少数微生物和部分动物体内,但不同生物在合成途径细节及所积累的类胡萝卜素种类方面存在较大的差异。通过优化培养条件、转基因和水解酶辅助提取等生物技术手段提高了类胡萝卜素产量,降低了生产成本,从而使天然类胡萝卜素制品得到更广泛的应用。     

植物类胡萝卜素生物合成及其相关基因在基因工程中的应用

近年来类胡萝卜素生物合成基因的分离与功能鉴定,为应用基因工程技术改变植物体内类胡萝卜素成份和提高类胡萝卜素含量提供了新的基因资源.有关类胡萝卜素合成的生物化学及其在体内调控研究的新进展,使通过遗传操作调控植物体内类胡萝卜素生物合成途径成为可能.该文综述了类胡萝卜素生物合成途径及其相关基因的研究现状,并结合作者的工作介绍了应用转基因技术改变植物体内类胡萝卜素成份与含量的最新成功的事例.     

木质素生物合成途径及调控的研究进展

木质素是植物体中仅次于纤维素的一种重要大分子有机物质,具重要生物学功能。木质素填充于纤维素构架中增强植物体的机械强度,利于疏导组织的水分运输和抵抗不良外界环境的侵袭。陆生植物的木质素合成是适应陆地环境的重要进化特征之一。然而,制浆造纸的中心环节是用大量化学品将原料中的木质素与纤维素分离,纤维素用于造纸,分离的木质素等成为造纸工业的主要废弃物,对江河湖海的污染触目惊心。脱木质素的化学品投入及废液的碱回收处理需大量耗能并增加造纸成本。饲草的木质素还影响牲畜的消化与营养吸收,木质素含量的高低是饲草优劣…     

紫杉醇生物合成途径及调控研究进展

本文综述了紫杉醇的生物合成途径、代谢调控及基因工程方面的研究进展,总结了代谢调控与基因工程方法提高红豆杉属植物细胞培养紫杉醇合成量的研究状况,并在探讨生物合成途径理论的基础上,对紫杉醇生物合成的限速步骤进行了阐述,指出解决侧链合成的根速步骤问题会显著提高紫杉醇的生物合成量。     

胭脂素的生物合成及应用研究进展

由于合成色素对人类健康具有潜在危害,天然色素逐渐受到青睐.胭脂素作为类胡萝卜素物质是世界第二大天然色素,其生物合成途径是国际研究热点,目前尚未被完整解析.文中综述了胭脂素的化学特性与提取方法、合成途径研究及应用现状,比较传统提取方法与新提取技术的特点,阐述胭脂素合成通路相关基因及非生物胁迫对合成通路的影响,介绍胭脂素在...     

透明质酸生物合成途径及基因工程研究进展

透明质酸是由N-乙酰氨基葡萄糖和葡萄糖醛酸组成的双糖单位聚合而成的直链酸性黏多糖,已被广泛应用于药物、化妆品和食品添加剂。微生物发酵法是目前生产透明质酸最有效的方法。生物体内透明质酸的合成途径基本一致,均为Leloir途径。透明质酸合成操纵子由透明质酸合酶基因、尿苷二磷酸葡萄糖脱氢酶基因和尿苷二磷酸葡萄糖焦磷酸化酶基因组成,其表达受Cov S/CovR和Lux S等多种调控系统调控。随着分子生物学技术的迅速发展以及对透明质酸合成相关基因了解的不断深入,人们从提高透明质酸安全性、提高透明质酸产量和调控透明质酸分子质量三个方面出发,通过基因工程手段构建出了高产、安全、一定分子质量范围的透明质酸生产菌株。就有关透明质酸生物合成途径、合成相关基因表达调控及生产菌株分子生物学改造的策略与研究进展进行综述和展望。     

Carotenoid biosynthetic genes in Brassica rapa: comparative genomic analysis,phylogenetic analysis,and expression profiling

Background

Carotenoids are isoprenoid compounds synthesized by all photosynthetic organisms. Despite much research on carotenoid biosynthesis in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, there is a lack of information on the carotenoid pathway in Brassica rapa. To better understand its carotenoid biosynthetic pathway, we performed a systematic analysis of carotenoid biosynthetic genes at the genome level in B. rapa.

Results

We identified 67 carotenoid biosynthetic genes in B. rapa, which were orthologs of the 47 carotenoid genes in A. thaliana. A high level of synteny was observed for carotenoid biosynthetic genes between A. thaliana and B. rapa. Out of 47 carotenoid biosynthetic genes in A. thaliana, 46 were successfully mapped to the 10 B. rapa chromosomes, and most of the genes retained more than one copy in B. rapa. The gene expansion was caused by the whole-genome triplication (WGT) event experienced by Brassica species. An expression analysis of the carotenoid biosynthetic genes suggested that their expression levels differed in root, stem, leaf, flower, callus, and silique tissues. Additionally, the paralogs of each carotenoid biosynthetic gene, which were generated from the WGT in B. rapa, showed significantly different expression levels among tissues, suggesting differentiated functions for these multi-copy genes in the carotenoid pathway.

Conclusions

This first systematic study of carotenoid biosynthetic genes in B. rapa provides insights into the carotenoid metabolic mechanisms of Brassica crops. In addition, a better understanding of carotenoid biosynthetic genes in B. rapa will contribute to the development of conventional and transgenic B. rapa cultivars with enriched carotenoid levels in the future.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1655-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

NADPH metabolism: a survey of its theoretical characteristics and manipulation strategies in amino acid biosynthesis

Reduced nicotinamide adenine nucleotide phosphate (NADPH), which is one of the key cofactors in the metabolic network, plays an important role in the biochemical reactions, and physiological function of amino acid-producing strains. The manipulation of NADPH availability and form is an efficient and easy method of redirecting the carbon flux to the amino acid biosynthesis in industrial strains. In this review, we survey the metabolic mode of NADPH. Furthermore, we summarize the research developments in the understanding of the relationship between NADPH metabolism and amino acid biosynthesis. Detailed strategies to manipulate NADPH availability are addressed based on this knowledge. Finally, the uses of NADPH manipulation strategies to enhance the metabolic function of amino acid-producing strains are discussed.     

产溶剂梭菌分子遗传操作技术研究进展

产溶剂梭菌是一类重要的工业微生物.通过遗传改造以优化产溶剂梭菌的发酵性能一直是溶剂制造技术研究的重要课题,但长期受限于该类菌并不完善的遗传操作工具,未见明显突破.近年来,随着TargeTron基因中断、大片段基因整合等新技术和新方法的出现,其分子遗传改造已取得较大进展.文中对产溶剂梭菌的分子遗传操作工具研究进展进行了总结,并指出了现有技术在效率及全面性方面的不足.基于此,今后应进一步优化现有的梭菌基因失活技术,如建立基于同源重组的基因删除和替换;同时也应发展新的分子操作技术,如基因组多位点共编辑、多拷贝定点和随机整合等.     

Structural and functional modularity of proteins in the de novo purine biosynthetic pathway

It is generally accepted that naturally existing functional domains can serve as building blocks for complex protein structures, and that novel functions can arise from assembly of different combinations of these functional domains. To inform our understanding of protein evolution and explore the modular nature of protein structure, two model enzymes were chosen for study, purT‐encoded glycinamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase (PurT) and purK‐encoded N⁵‐carboxylaminoimidazole ribonucleotide synthetase (PurK). Both enzymes are found in the de novo purine biosynthetic pathway of Escherichia coli. In spite of their low sequence identity, PurT and PurK share significant similarity in terms of tertiary structure, active site organization, and reaction mechanism. Their characteristic three domain structures categorize both PurT and PurK as members of the ATP‐grasp protein superfamily. In this study, we investigate the exchangeability of individual protein domains between these two enzymes and the in vivo and in vitro functional properties of the resulting hybrids. Six domain‐swapped hybrids were unable to catalyze full wild‐type reactions, but each hybrid protein could catalyze partial reactions. Notably, an additional loop replacement in one of the domain‐swapped hybrid proteins was able to restore near wild‐type PurK activity. Therefore, in this model system, domain‐swapped proteins retained the ability to catalyze partial reactions, but further modifications were required to efficiently couple the reaction intermediates and achieve catalysis of the full reaction. Implications for understanding the role of domain swapping in protein evolution are discussed.     

Reconstructing a recycling and nonauxotroph biosynthetic pathway in Escherichia coli toward highly efficient production of L-citrulline

L-citrulline is a high-value amino acid with promising application in medicinal and food industries. Construction of highly efficient microbial cell factories for L-citrulline production is still an open issue due to complex metabolic flux distribution and L-arginine auxotrophy. In this study, we constructed a nonauxotrophic cell factory in Escherichia coli for high-titer L-citrulline production by coupling modular engineering strategies with dynamic pathway regulation. First, the biosynthetic pathway of L-citrulline was enhanced after blockage of the degradation pathway and introduction of heterologous biosynthetic genes from Corynebacterium glutamicum. Specifically, a superior recycling biosynthetic pathway was designed to replace the native linear pathway by deleting native acetylornithine deacetylase. Next, the carbamoyl phosphate and L-glutamate biosynthetic modules, the NADPH generation module, and the efflux module were modified to increase L-citrulline titer further. Finally, a toggle switch that responded to cell density was designed to dynamically control the expression of the argG gene and reconstruct a nonauxotrophic pathway. Without extra supplement of L-arginine during fermentation, the final CIT24 strain produced 82.1 g/L L-citrulline in a 5-L bioreactor with a yield of 0.34 g/g glucose and a productivity of 1.71 g/(L ⋅ h), which were the highest values reported by microbial fermentation. Our study not only demonstrated the successful design of cell factory for high-level L-citrulline production but also provided references of coupling the rational module engineering strategies and dynamic regulation strategies to produce high-value intermediate metabolites.     

1,2-Dehydroreticuline synthase, the branch point enzyme opening the morphinan biosynthetic pathway

A synthase which oxidizes (S)-reticuline to 1,2-dehydroreticuline has been found to occur in seedlings of opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.). Due to its instability, this enzyme could only be partly purified (ca. 5-fold enrichment). Partial characterization at this stage of purification showed that it does not need a redox cofactor and accepts both (S)-reticuline and (S)-norreticuline as substrates. [1-(2)H, (13)C]-(R,S)-reticuline was enzymatically converted into [1-(13)C]-dehydroreticuline, which has been identified by mass spectrometry. Release of the hydrogen atom in position C-1 of the isoquinoline alkaloid during the oxidative conversion, was exploited as a sensitive assay system for this enzyme. The enzyme has a pH optimum of 8.75, a temperature optimum of 37 degrees C and the apparent K(M) value for the substrate reticuline was shown to be 117 microM. Moreover it could be demonstrated by sucrose density gradient centrifugation that the enzyme is located in vesicles of varying size. In combination with the previously discovered strictly stereoselective and NADPH dependent 1,2-dehydroreticuline reductase the detection of this enzyme, the 1,2-dehydroreticuline synthase, provides the necessary inversion of configuration and completes the pathway from two molecules of L-tyrosine via (S)-norcoclaurine to (R)-reticuline in opium poppy involving a total number of 11 enzymes.     

Evolution of tryptophan biosynthetic pathway in microbial genomes: a comparative genetic study

Biosynthetic pathway evolution needs to consider the evolution of a group of genes that code for enzymes catalysing the multiple chemical reaction steps leading to the final end product. Tryptophan biosynthetic pathway has five chemical reaction steps that are highly conserved in diverse microbial genomes, though the genes of the pathway enzymes show considerable variations in arrangements, operon structure (gene fusion and splitting) and regulation. We use a combined bioinformatic and statistical analyses approach to address the question if the pathway genes from different microbial genomes, belonging to a wide range of groups, show similar evolutionary relationships within and between them. Our analyses involved detailed study of gene organization (fusion/splitting events), base composition, relative synonymous codon usage pattern of the genes, gene expressivity, amino acid usage, etc. to assess inter- and intra-genic variations, between and within the pathway genes, in diverse group of microorganisms. We describe these genetic and genomic variations in the tryptophan pathway genes in different microorganisms to show the similarities across organisms, and compare the same genes across different organisms to find the possible variability arising possibly due to horizontal gene transfers. Such studies form the basis for moving from single gene evolution to pathway evolutionary studies that are important steps towards understanding the systems biology of intracellular pathways.     

Composition and presumed biosynthetic pathway of carotenoids in the astaxanthin-producing bacterium Agrobacterium aurantiacum

Abstract The carotenoid composition of the astaxanthin-producing bacterium Agrobacterium aurantiacum was analysed under different culture conditions. Ten kinds of carotenoids, β-carotene, echinenone, β-cryptoxanthin, 3-hydroxyechinenone, canthaxanthin, 3'-hydroxyechinenone, zeaxanthin, adonirubin, adonixanthin and astaxanthin, were identified by HPLC and spectroscopical techniques. A. aurantiacum synthesized astaxanthin from β-carotene through two hydroxylation steps at C-3 and 3', and oxidation steps at C-4 and 4'. The order of these reactions appeared to be controlled by the culture conditions. A new pathway for astaxanthin formation, different from that of other astaxanthin-producing microorganisms, is proposed.