Open AccessMetabolic engineering of medicinal plants: transgenic Atropa belladonna with an improved alkaloid composition.
Author(s) -
DaeJin Yun,
Takashi Hashimoto,
Yasuyuki Yamada
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.89.24.11799
Subject(s) - hyoscyamine , atropa belladonna , tropane , cauliflower mosaic virus , biology , datura , transformation (genetics) , genetically modified crops , transgene , alkaloid , datura stramonium , solanaceae , botany , biochemistry , gene , neuroscience
The tropane alkaloid scopolamine is a medicinally important anticholinergic drug present in several solanaceous plants. Hyoscyamine 6 beta-hydroxylase (EC 1.14.11.11) catalyzes the oxidative reactions in the biosynthetic pathway leading from hyoscyamine to scopolamine. We introduced the hydroxylase gene from Hyoscyamus niger under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter into hyoscyamine-rich Atropa belladonna by the use of an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation system. A transgenic plant that constitutively and strongly expressed the transgene was selected, first by screening for kanamycin resistance and then by immunoscreening leaf samples with an antibody specific for the hydroxylase. In the primary transformant and its selfed progeny that inherited the transgene, the alkaloid contents of the leaf and stem were almost exclusively scopolamine. Such metabolically engineered plants should prove useful as breeding materials for obtaining improved medicinal components.