Salvia sclarea genome assembly project
Plant specialized metabolites play essential ecological roles, yet the mechanisms underlying their diversification remain poorly understood. We investigated the biosynthesis of sclareol, a potent antifungal diterpene produced by Salvia sclarea (clary sage). A complete telomere-to-telomere genome assembly of clary sage, compared with genomes of related Lamiaceae species that do not produce sclareol, revealed a recent tandem duplication of a class II diterpene synthase gene (SsLPPS). This duplicated enzyme has acquired a novel function, synthesizing labda-13-en-8-ol diphosphate (LPP), the direct precursor of sclareol.