Plant Biotechnology 30, 97–109 (2013) DOI: 10.5511/plantbiotechnology.12.1230a Original Paper A lignan O-methyltransferase catalyzing the regioselective methylation of matairesinol in Carthamus tinctorius Toshiaki Umezawa1,2,*,†, Safendrri Komara Ragamustari1,2,†, Tomoyuki Nakatsubo1, Shohei Wada1, Laigeng Li3,4, Masaomi Yamamura1, Norikazu Sakakibara1,5, Takefumi Hattori1,6, Shiro Suzuki1, Vincent L. Chiang3 1 Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan; 2 Institute of Sustainability Science, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan; 3 Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, College of Natural Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7247, USA; 4 Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China; 5 Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Kagawa Campus, Tokushima Bunri University, Sanuki, Kagawa 769-2193, Japan; 6 Institute of Socio-Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima 770-8502, Japan * E-mail:
[email protected] Tel: +81-774-38-3625 Fax: +81-774-38-3682 Received December 14, 2012; accepted December 30, 2012 (Edited by T. Aoki) Abstract Lignans are a group of plant phenolic compounds with various biological activities, including antitumor and antioxidant properties. O-Methylation is a critical step in biosynthesis of these compounds. However, little is known about the O-methyltransferase (OMT) enzymes that catalyze lignan O-methylation. We discovered a highly regioselective OMT activity in safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) seeds that catalyzed the methylation of matairesinol, a dibenzylbutyrolactone lignan, into 4′-O-methylmatairesinol (arctigenin) but not 4-O-methylmatairesinol (isoarctigenin). By examining such OMT activity in correlation with OMT transcript abundances during seed development, we cloned a few putative OMT cDNAs and produced their recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli.