title: Production of soybean isoflavone genistein in non-legume plants via genetically modified secondary metabolism pathway.
abstract: Genetic modification of secondary metabolic pathways to produce desirable natural products is an attractive approach in plant biotechnology. In our study, we attempted to produce a typical soybean isoflavone genistein, a well-known health-promoting metabolite, in non-legume plants via genetic engineering. Both overexpression and antisense suppression strategies were used to manipulate the expression of several genes encoding key enzymes in the flavonoids/isoflavonoids pathway in transgenic tobacco, lettuce, and petunia. Introducing soybean isoflavone synthase (IFS) into these plants, which naturally do not produce isoflavonoids due to a lack of this leguminous enzyme, resulted in genistein biosynthesis in tobacco petals, petunia leaves and petals, and lettuce leaves. In tobacco, when flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H) expression was suppressed by its antisense gene while soybean IFS was overexpressed at the same time, genistein yield increased prominently. In addition, overexpression of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) also led to an enhanced genistein production in tobacco petals and lettuce leaves in the presence of IFS than in the plants that overexpressed only IFS.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Rongrong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yuanlei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Jialin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhongping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D019833:Genistein / Q000378:metabolism*; D006899:Mixed Function Oxygenases / Q000235:genetics*; D010105:Oxygenases / Q000235:genetics*; D010650:Phenylalanine Ammonia-Lyase / Q000235:genetics*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D019833:Genistein; D006899:Mixed Function Oxygenases; D010105:Oxygenases; C048797:flavanone 3-dioxygenase; C048489:isoflavone synthase; D010650:Phenylalanine Ammonia-Lyase