Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31100-1
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Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- Canada Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund
- New Brunswick Innovation Foundation [RIF2019-036, EQP2020-007, RAI2021-068]
- NSERC Discovery Grant
- NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards
- Canada Research Chair Tier1 grant
- Cannabis Health Research Chair grant from Tetra Bio Pharma Inc.
- New Brunswick Health Research Foundation
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This study discovered and characterized vindolinine synthase, an enzyme that catalyzes an unusual redox-neutral reaction, leading to alkaloid diversity. This has important implications for understanding plant specialized metabolism and alkaloid synthesis.
Catharanthus roseus is the source for anticancer drug vinblastine and other medicinal monoterpenoid indole alkaloids. Here the authors characterize an Fe/2OG dioxygenase, vindolinine synthase, which catalyzes an unusual redox-neutral reaction leading to alkaloid diversity. The Madagascar's periwinkle is the model plant for studies of plant specialized metabolism and monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIAs), and an important source for the anticancer medicine vinblastine. The elucidation of entire 28-step biosynthesis of vinblastine allowed further investigations for the formation of other remarkably complex bioactive MIAs. In this study, we describe the discovery and characterization of vindolinine synthase, a Fe(II)/alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent (Fe/2OG) dioxygenase, that diverts assembly of tabersonine to vinblastine toward the formation of three alternatively cyclized MIAs: 19S-vindolinine, 19R-vindolinine, and venalstonine. Vindolinine synthase catalyzes a highly unusual, redox-neutral reaction to form a radical from dehydrosecodine, which is further cyclized by hydrolase 2 to form the three MIA isomers. We further show the biosynthesis of vindolinine epimers from tabersonine using hydrolase 2 catalyzed reverse cycloaddition. While the occurrence of vindolinines is rare in nature, the more widely found venalstonine derivatives are likely formed from similar redox-neutral reactions by homologous Fe/2OG dioxygenases.
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