Engineering Betalain Biosynthesis in Tomato for High Level Betanin Production in Fruits

Betalains are pigments found in plants of the Caryophyllales order, and include the red-purple betacyanins and the yellow-orange betaxanthins. The red pigment from red beets, betanin, is made from tyrosine by a biosynthetic pathway that consists of a cytochrome P450, a L-DOPA dioxygenase, and a glucosyltransferase. The entire pathway was recently reconstituted in plants that do not make betalains naturally including potato and tomato plants. The amount of betanin produced in these plants was however not as high as in red beets. It was recently shown that a plastidic arogenate dehydrogenase gene involved in biosynthesis of tyrosine in plants is duplicated in Beta vulgaris and other betalain-producing plants, and that one of the two encoded enzymes, BvADHα, has relaxed feedback inhibition by tyrosine, contributing to the high amount of betanin found in red beets. We have reconstituted the complete betanin biosynthetic pathway in tomato plants with or without a BvADHα gene, and with all genes expressed under control of a fruit-specific promoter. The plants obtained with a construct containing BvADHα produced betanin at a higher level than plants obtained with a construct lacking this gene. These results show that use of BvADHα can be useful for high level production of betalains in heterologous hosts. Unlike red beets that produce both betacyanins and betaxanthins, the transformed tomatoes produced betacyanins only, conferring a bright purple-fuschia color to the tomato juice.

Role of Cytosolic, Tyrosine-Insensitive Prephenate Dehydrogenase in Medicago truncatula

ABSTRACTL-Tyrosine (Tyr) is an aromatic amino acid synthesized de novo in plants and microbes downstream of the shikimate pathway. In plants, Tyr and a Tyr pathway intermediate, 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate (HPP), are precursors to numerous specialized metabolites, which are crucial for plant and human health. Tyr is synthesized in the plastids by a TyrA family enzyme, arogenate dehydrogenase (ADH/TyrAa), which is feedback inhibited by Tyr. In addition to ADH enzymes, many legumes possess prephenate dehydrogenases (PDH/TyrAp), which are insensitive to Tyr and localized to the cytosol. Yet the role of PDH in legumes is currently unknown. This study isolated and characterized Tnt1-transposon mutants of MtPDH1 (pdh1) in Medicago truncatula to investigate PDH function. The pdh1 mutants lacked PDH transcript, PDH activity, and displayed little aberrant morphological phenotypes under standard growth conditions providing genetic evidence that MtPDH1 is responsible for the PDH activity detected in M. truncatula. Though plant PDH enzymes and activity have been specifically found in legumes, nodule number and nitrogenase activity of pdh1 mutants were not significantly reduced compared to wild-type (Wt) during symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Although Tyr levels were not significantly different between Wt and mutants under standard conditions, when carbon flux was increased by shikimate precursor feeding, mutants accumulated significantly less Tyr than Wt. These data suggest that MtPDH1 is involved in Tyr biosynthesis when the shikimate pathway is stimulated, and possibly linked to unidentified legume-specific specialized metabolism.

A core catalytic domain of the TyrA protein family: arogenate dehydrogenase from Synechocystis

The TyrA protein family includes prephenate dehydrogenases, cyclohexadienyl dehydrogenases and TyrAas (arogenate dehydrogenases). tyrAa from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, encoding a 30 kDa TyrAa protein, was cloned into an overexpression vector in Escherichia coli. TyrAa was then purified to apparent homogeneity and characterized. This protein is a model structure for a catalytic core domain in the TyrA superfamily, uncomplicated by allosteric or fused domains. Competitive inhibitors acting at the catalytic core of TyrA proteins are analogues of any accepted cyclohexadienyl substrate. The homodimeric enzyme was specific for L-arogenate (Km=331 μM) and NADP+ (Km=38 μM), being unable to substitute prephenate or NAD+ respectively. L-Tyrosine was a potent inhibitor of the enzyme (Ki=70 μM). NADPH had no detectable ability to inhibit the reaction. Although the mechanism is probably steady-state random order, properties of 2′,5′-ADP as an inhibitor suggest a high preference for L-arogenate binding first. Comparative enzymology established that both of the arogenate-pathway enzymes, prephenate aminotransferase and TyrAa, were present in many diverse cyanobacteria and in a variety of eukaryotic red and green algae.

Purification and Properties of Arogenate Dehydrogenase from Actinoplanes missouriensis

Actinoplanes missouriensis utilizes arogenate as an intermediate in ʟ-tyrosine biosynthesis, while no evidence of prephenate dehydrogenase was observed. Arogenate dehydrogenase has been partially purified by a five-step procedure. The enzyme requires NAD as cofactor. The Km values for NAD and arogenate are 0.2 mм and 0.15 mм, respectively. The molecular weight of arogenate dehydrogenase is about 68,000, and SDS gel electrophoresis indicates a composition of two identical subunits. The enzyme is not feedback inhibited by ʟ-tyrosine and unaffected by ʟ-phenylalanine, prephenate, phenylpyruvate, p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate or ʟ-tryptophan. Arogenate dehydrogenase is quite sensitive to p-hydroxymercuribenzoate with 50% inhibition at 12.5 μм of the SH -specific reagent. The presence of malate in usually applied arogenate preparations is demonstrated and the consequence of an impure substrate on arogenate dehydrogenase studies is discussed.