Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
Volume 68, Issue 15, Pages 4029-4043Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erx152
Keywords
Benzylisoquinoline alkaloid metabolism; metabolic engineering; microbial metabolism; plant metabolism; synthetic biology
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Epimeron Inc.
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Gene fusions have recently attracted attention especially in the field of plant specialized metabolism. The occurrence of a gene fusion, in which originally separate gene products are combined into a single polypeptide, often corresponds to the functional association of individual components within a single metabolic pathway. Examples include gene fusions implicated in benzylisoquinoline alkaloid (BIA), terpenoid, and amino acid biosynthetic pathways, in which distinct domains within a fusion catalyze consecutive, yet independent reactions. Both genomic and transcriptional mechanisms result in the fusion of gene products, which can include partial or complete domain repeats and extensive domain shuffling as evident in the BIA biosynthetic enzyme norcoclaurine synthase. Artificial gene fusions are commonly deployed in attempts to engineer new or improved pathways in plants or microorganisms, based on the premise that fusions are advantageous. However, a survey of functionally characterized fusions in microbial systems shows that the functional impact of fused gene products is not straightforward. For example, whereas enzyme fusions might facilitate the metabolic channeling of unstable intermediates, this channeling can also occur between tightly associated independent enzymes. The frequent occurrence of both fused and unfused enzymes in plant and microbial metabolism adds additional complexity, in terms of both pathway functionality and evolution.
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