Galactinol synthase gene of Coptis japonica is involved in berberine tolerance.
Many plant secondary metabolites show strong biological activities and are potentially also toxic to plants, while plants producing such active compounds are usually insensitive to their own metabolites, suggesting that they have species-specific detoxification mechanisms. In order to clarify the detoxification mechanism of alkaloids, we used cultured cells of Coptis japonica, which are capable of producing a yellow benzylisoquinoline alkaloid, berberine, and accumulate it in the vacuole. Unlike other plant cells that do not produce berberine, C. japonica shows strong tolerance to this alkaloid. We established a fission yeast strain that was sensitive to berberine and performed functional screening using a C. japonica cDNA library. One cDNA clone, which conferred clear berberine tolerance, encoded galactinol synthase (CjGolS). The possible role of CjGolS in berberine tolerance is discussed.
Takanashi
Kojiro
K
Laboratory of Plant Gene Expression, Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji 611-0011, Japan.
Shitan
Nobukazu
N
Sugiyama
Akifumi
A
Kamimoto
Yoshihisa
Y
Hamamoto
Masafumi
M
Iwaki
Tomoko
T
Takegawa
Kaoru
K
Yazaki
Kazufumi
K
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D001599:Berberine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D039323:Coptis / Q000145:classification / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D005700:Galactosyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000187:drug effects; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D001599:Berberine; D005700:Galactosyltransferases; C096645:inositol 1-alpha-galactosyltransferase