Journal
MOLECULES
Volume 27, Issue 20, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/molecules27206878
Keywords
capsaicin; Capsicum; Pun1; acyltransferase; BAHD; CoA-ester; enzyme activity; substrate specificity
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Capsaicin is a popular spice and has important pharmaceutical relevance. This study demonstrates the enzymatic activity of a recombinant capsaicin synthase encoded by Pun1 in E. coli, providing information on its substrate specificity and catalytic properties. This knowledge can be used to design capsaicin synthase variants with different properties and preferences for alternative substrates.
Capsaicin, produced by diverse Capsicum species, is among the world's most popular spices and of considerable pharmaceutical relevance. Although the capsaicinoid biosynthetic pathway has been investigated for decades, several biosynthetic steps have remained partly hypothetical. Genetic evidence suggested that the decisive capsaicin synthase is encoded by the Pun1 locus. Yet, the genetic evidence of the Pun1 locus was never corroborated by functionally active capsaicin synthase that presumably catalyzes an amide bond formation between trans 8-methyl-6-nonenoyl-CoA derived from branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis and vanilloylamine derived from the phenylpropanoid pathway. In this report, we demonstrate the enzymatic activity of a recombinant capsaicin synthase encoded by Pun1, functionally expressed in Escherichia coli, and provide information on its substrate specificity and catalytic properties. Recombinant capsaicin synthase is specific for selected aliphatic CoA-esters and highly specific for vanilloylamine. Partly purified from E. coli, the recombinant active enzyme is a monomeric protein of 51 kDa that is independent of additional co-factors or associated proteins, as previously proposed. These data can now be used to design capsaicin synthase variants with different properties and alternative substrate preferences.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available