title: Geranyl diphosphate:4-hydroxybenzoate geranyltransferase from Lithospermum erythrorhizon. Cloning and characterization of a ket enzyme in shikonin biosynthesis.
abstract: Two cDNAs encoding geranyl diphosphate:4-hy- droxybenzoate 3-geranyltransferase were isolated from Lithospermum erythrorhizon by nested PCR using the conserved amino acid sequences among polyprenyl- transferases for ubiquinone biosynthesis. They were functionally expressed in yeast COQ2 disruptant and showed a strict substrate specificity for geranyl diphosphate as the prenyl donor, in contrast to ubiquinone biosynthetic enzymes, suggesting that they are involved in the biosynthesis of shikonin, a naphthoquinone secondary metabolite. Regulation of their expression by various culture conditions coincided with that of geranyltransferase activity and the secondary metabolites biosynthesized via this enzyme. This is the first established plant prenyltransferase that transfers the prenyl chain to an aromatic substrate.
authors.affiliation: Molecular & Cellular Biology of Totipotency, Division of Integrated Life Science, Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan. yazaki@kais.kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kazufumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yazaki
authors.forename: Miyuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kunihisa
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujisaki
authors.forename: Fumihiko
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sato
mesh_terms: D019883:Alkyl and Aryl Transferases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / Q000378:metabolism; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017931:DNA Primers; D007700:Kinetics; D029684:Lithospermum / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009285:Naphthoquinones / Q000378:metabolism*; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D017931:DNA Primers; D009285:Naphthoquinones; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C016101:shikonin; D019883:Alkyl and Aryl Transferases; C452181:geranyl diphosphate 4-hydroxybenzoate geranyltransferase