Characterization of vacuolar transport of the endogenous alkaloid berberine in Coptis japonica

Alkaloids comprise one of the largest groups of plant secondary metabolites. Many of them exhibit strong biological activities, and, in most cases, they are accumulated in the central vacuole of alkaloid-producing plants after synthesis. However, the mechanisms involved in alkaloid transport across the tonoplast are only poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed the vacuolar transport mechanism of an isoquinoline alkaloid, berberine, which is produced and accumulated in the vacuole of cultured cells of Coptis japonica. The characterization of berberine transport using intact vacuoles and a tonoplast vesicle system showed that berberine uptake was stimulated by Mg/ATP, as well as GTP, CTP, UTP, and Mg/pyrophosphate. Berberine uptake was strongly inhibited by NH4+ and bafilomycin A1, while vanadate, which is commonly used to inhibit ATP-binding cassette transporters, had only a slight effect, which suggests the presence of a typical secondary transport mechanism. This is contrary to the situation in the plasma membrane of this plant cell, where the ATP-binding cassette transporter is involved in berberine transport. Model experiments with liposomes demonstrated that an ion-trap mechanism was hardly implicated in berberine transport. Further studies suggested that berberine was transported across the tonoplast via an H+/berberine antiporter, which has a K-m value of 43.7 mu M for berberine. Competition experiments using various berberine analogs, as well as other classes of alkaloids, revealed that this transporter is fairly specific, but not exclusive, for berberine.