title: Structural Analyses of Short-Chain Prenyltransferases Identify an Evolutionarily Conserved GFPPS Clade in Brassicaceae Plants.
abstract: Terpenoids are the largest and most diverse class of plant-specialized metabolites, which function in diverse physiological processes during plant development. In the biosynthesis of plant terpenoids, short-chain prenyltransferases (SC-PTs), together with terpene synthases (TPSs), play critical roles in determining terpenoid diversity. SC-PTs biosynthesize prenyl pyrophosphates with different chain lengths, and these compounds are the direct precursors of terpenoids. Arabidopsis thaliana possesses a subgroup of SC-PTs whose functions are not clearly known. In this study, we focus on 10 geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthase-like [GGPPSL] proteins, which are commonly thought to produce GGPP [C20]. We found that a subset of members of the Arabidopsis GGPPSL gene family have undergone neo-functionalization: GGPPSL6, 7, 9, and 10 mainly have geranylfarnesyl pyrophosphate synthase activity (C25; renamed AtGFPPS1, 2, 3, and 4), and GGPPSL8 produces even longer chain prenyl pyrophosphate (≥ C30; renamed polyprenyl pyrophosphate synthase 2, AtPPPS2). By solving the crystal structures of AtGFPPS2, AtPPPS2, and AtGGPPS11, we reveal the product chain-length determination mechanism of SC-PTs and interpret it as a "three floors" model. Using this model, we identified a novel GFPPS clade distributed in Brassicaceae plants and found that the GFPPS gene typically occurs in tandem with a gene encoding a TPS, forming a GFPPS-TPS gene cluster.
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Chengyuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Qingwen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Dongjie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Jianxu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Electronic address: gdwang@genetics.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Guodong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China. Electronic address: pengzhang01@sibs.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019607:Brassicaceae / Q000737:chemistry / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004122:Dimethylallyltranstransferase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D004122:Dimethylallyltranstransferase
keywords: crystal structure; geranylfarnesyl diphosphate synthase; molecular basis; prenyltransferase; product length determination; terpenoid