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Plant Tropane Alkaloid Biosynthesis Evolved Independently in the Solanaceae and Erythroxylaceae

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Plant Tropane Alkaloid Biosynthesis Evolved Independently in the Solanaceae and Erythroxylaceae Plant tropane alkaloid biosynthesis evolved independently in the Solanaceae and Erythroxylaceae Jan Jirschitzkaa, Gregor W. Schmidta, Michael Reichelta, Bernd Schneiderb, Jonathan Gershenzona, and John Charles D’Auriaa,1 aDepartment of Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, D-07745 Jena, Germany; and bNMR Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, D-07745 Jena, Germany Edited by Jerrold Meinwald, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and approved May 4, 2012 (received for review January 11, 2012) The pharmacologically important tropane alkaloids have a scat- Studies of the biosynthesis of tropane alkaloids have been tered distribution among angiosperm families, like many other predominantly performed with members of the Solanaceae and groups of secondary metabolites. To determine whether tropane to a lesser extent with cultivated species of the Erythroxylaceae. alkaloids have evolved repeatedly in different lineages or arise The majority of these studies used in vivo feeding of radiolabeled from an ancestral pathway that has been lost in most lines, we precursors (4–6) to elucidate the outlines of a general tropane investigated the tropinone-reduction step of their biosynthesis. In alkaloid biosynthetic pathway (7, 8). Biosynthesis is initiated species of the Solanaceae, which produce compounds such as from the polyamine putrescine, which is derived from the amino atropine and scopolamine, this reaction is known to be catalyzed acids ornithine or arginine (Fig. S1). Putrescine becomes N- by enzymes of the short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase family. methylated via the action of putrescine methyltransferase in what However, in Erythroxylum coca (Erythroxylaceae), which accumu- is generally considered to be the first committed step in tropane lates cocaine and other tropane alkaloids, no proteins of the short- alkaloid production (9). This compound is then oxidized to yield chain dehydrogenase/reductase family were found that could 4-(methyl-1-amino)butanal, which under normal physiological fi E. coca catalyze this reaction. Instead, puri cation of tropinone- conditions is thought to spontaneously rearrange into the five- reduction activity and cloning of the corresponding gene revealed membered-ring compound N-methyl-Δ1-pyrrolinium. The for- that a protein of the aldo-keto reductase family carries out this mation of the second ring in tropane alkaloid biosynthesis is E. coca reaction in . This protein, designated methylecgonone re- a subject of debate. One hypothesis is that N-methyl-Δ1-pyrro- ductase, converts methylecgonone to methylecgonine, the penul- linium condenses with acetoacetate and the ring closure occurs timate step in cocaine biosynthesis. The protein has highest following oxidation and another round of aldol condensation sequence similarity to other aldo-keto reductases, such as chalcone Δ1 fl (10). Another hypothesis is that the N-methyl- -pyrrolinium reductase, an enzyme of avonoid biosynthesis, and codeinone acts as a starter unit for two rounds of polyketide-type extension reductase, an enzyme of morphine alkaloid biosynthesis. Methyl- with malonyl-CoA (11). In both schemes, the resulting second ecgonone reductase reduces methylecgonone (2-carbomethoxy-3- ring contains a keto function at the 3 position. Reduction at this tropinone) stereospecifically to 2-carbomethoxy-3β-tropine (meth- position is required for subsequent ester formation. ylecgonine), and has its highest activity, protein level, and gene In members of the Solanaceae, reduction of the keto group in the transcript level in young, expanding leaves of E. coca. This enzyme tropane ring is catalyzed by enzymes known as tropinone reduc- is not found at all in root tissues, which are the site of tropane alkaloid biosynthesis in the Solanaceae. This evidence supports the tases (TRs) (12). These enzymes belong to the short-chain de- theory that the ability to produce tropane alkaloids has arisen hydrogenase/reductase (SDR) enzyme family, which are NAD(P) more than once during the evolution of the angiosperms. (H)-dependent monomeric oxidoreductases with low sequence identities and a catalytic Asn-Ser-Tyr-Lys tetrad (13). There are two convergent evolution | pseudotropine | immunoprecipitation | separate tropinone reductases (TRI and TRII) in the Solanaceae, fi immunolocalization andtheyleadtoasigni cant bifurcation of tropane alkaloid bio- synthesis in this family. TRI converts the 3-keto function exclusively to a product with a 3α-configuration, producing a tropine (3α-tro- ropane alkaloids consist of over 200 known compounds with panol), which is the precursor to a variety of esterified tropane Ta tropane ring in their structures, such as the anticholinergic alkaloids, such as atropine. On the other hand, TRII produces ex- drugs atropine and scopolamine and the stimulant cocaine (1). clusively an alcohol with a 3β-configuration, referred to as pseudo- Like other plant secondary metabolites, tropane alkaloids have tropine (3β-tropanol), which is then converted to various a scattered distribution in the angiosperms, being reported nonesterified tropane alkaloids called calystegines. The occurrence from seven families, including the Proteaceae, Convolvulaceae, of these two separate TRs in the Solanaceae has been attributed to Brassicaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Rhizophoraceae, Solanaceae, and a gene-duplication event (14). TRs are characteristic of tropane Erythroxylaceae (2), many of which are taxonomically distant alkaloid biosynthesis, and are even proposed to be limited to tro- from one another. For example, the Erythroxylaceae and Sol- pane alkaloid-producing plants (15). However, it is unclear whether anaceae are members of completely different clades, and their last common ancestor is believed to have lived ∼120 million y ago (3). The uneven distribution of tropane alkaloids in the angio- Author contributions: J.J. and J.C.D. designed research; J.J., G.W.S., B.S., and J.C.D. per- sperms and the evolutionary distances between those families formed research; M.R. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; J.J., G.W.S., M.R., B.S., J.G., and J.C.D. analyzed data; and J.J., J.G., and J.C.D. wrote the paper. producing them suggest two alternative hypotheses: Either the The authors declare no conflict of interest. ability to produce tropane alkaloids has arisen independently in This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. multiple plant lineages, or the tropane alkaloid biosynthetic Freely available online through the PNAS open access option. pathway was present in an ancestor basal to much of the angio- Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the Gen- sperms and was subsequently lost in most lineages. Determining Bank database (accession nos. GU562618, JQ015102–JQ015104, JQ804916, and JQ804917). which hypothesis is correct may help explain why many other 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]. groups of secondary metabolites also have scattered distributions This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10. among the angiosperms. 1073/pnas.1200473109/-/DCSupplemental. 10304–10309 | PNAS | June 26, 2012 | vol. 109 | no. 26 www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1200473109 Downloaded by guest on September 27, 2021 all tropane alkaloid biosynthesis relies on TRs for catalysis. Besides AAB09776, and CAB52307) were blasted individually with the TRs of the short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase family, there “tblastn” against an E. coca EST library (19). Three sequences are several other major groups of plant proteins that contain were identified that encoded for polypeptides ranging between enzymes that could supply reductase activity for tropane alkaloid 258 and 275 amino acids (GenBank accession nos. JQ015102, biosynthesis, including the medium-chain dehydrogenase/reduc- JQ015103, and JQ015104). The full-length ORFs of these tro- tases, the aldehyde dehydrogenases, and the aldo-keto reductases. pinone reductase-like genes were cloned and expressed in To determine whether tropane alkaloid formation in distant Escherichia coli, and the crude supernatants were tested for TR angiosperm lineages has a common evolutionary origin, we in- activity. To verify the appropriateness of the assay conditions, vestigated the tropinone-reduction step in Erythroxylum coca Solanum tuberosum tropinone reductase II (GenBank accession (Erythroxylaceae), a species that accumulates cocaine and other no. CAB52307) was used as a positive control. The expressed tropane alkaloids in abundance (16) and is taxonomically very empty pET-28a vector served as a negative control. Tropinone remote from the Solanaceae. For the tropane alkaloids of E. reductase activity was detected in the positive control and the coca, tropinone reduction involves the conversion of 2β-carbo- crude plant extract, but not for any of the heterologously methoxy-3-tropinone (methylecgonone) to 2β-carbomethoxy-3β- expressed tropinone reductase-like enzymes from E. coca. tropine (methylecgonine). Interestingly, tropinone reductases from the Solanaceae have not been shown to have significant Methylecgonone Reductase Activity Was Detected in Various Above- methylecgonone reducing activity (15, 17), suggesting the exis- Ground Organs of E. coca. Although none of the proteins encoded tence of a different type of catalyst in the Erythroxylaceae. by tropinone reductase-like genes from E. coca exhibited any de- In this study, we report the biochemical and molecular charac- tectable TR activity, it was possible to
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