Journal
FEBS LETTERS
Volume 580, Issue 5, Pages 1411-1416Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2006.01.065
Keywords
artemisinin; sesquiterpene; cytochrome P450; trichome; Artemisia annua
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Artemisinin, a sesquiterpene lactone endoperoxide derived from the plant Artemisia annua, forms the basis of the most important treatments of malaria in use today. In an effort to elucidate the biosynthesis of artemisinin, an expressed sequence tag approach to identifying the relevant biosynthetic genes was undertaken using isolated glandular trichomes as a source of mRNA. A cDNA clone encoding a cytochrome P450 designated CYP71AV1 was characterized by expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and shown to catalyze the oxidation of the proposed biosynthetic intermediates amorpha4,11-diene, artemisinic alcohol and artemisinic aldehyde. The identification of the CYP71AV1 gene should allow for the engineering of semi-synthetic production of artemisinin in appropriate plant or microbial hosts. Crown Copyright (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies. All rights reserved.
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