Distinct triterpene synthases in the laticifers of Euphorbia lathyris

Edith Forestier (1) , Carmen Romero-Segura (2) , Irini Pateraki (2) , Emilio Centeno (2) , Vincent Compagnon (1) , Myriam Preiss (1) , Anne Berna (1) , Albert Boronat (2) , Thomas Bach (1) , Sylvain Darnet (3) , Hubert Schaller (1)

1 IBMP - Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes
2 UB - Universitat de Barcelona
3 UFPA - Federal University of Para - Universidade Federal do Pará - UFPA [Belém, Brazil]

Euphorbia lathyris was proposed about fifty years ago as a potential agroenergetic crop. The tremendous amounts of triterpenes present in its latex has driven investigations for transforming this particular biological fluid into an industrial hydrocarbon source. The huge accumulation of terpenes in the latex of many plant species represent a challenging question regarding cellular homeostasis. In fact, the enzymes, the mechanisms and the controllers that tune the amount of products accumulated in specialized compartments (to fulfill ecological roles) or deposited at important sites (as essential factors) are not known. Here, we have isolated oxidosqualene cyclases highly expressed in the latex of Euphorbia lathyris. This triterpene biosynthetic machinery is made of distinct paralogous enzymes responsible for the massive accumulation of steroidal and non-steroidal tetracyclic triterpenes. More than eighty years after the isolation of butyrospermol from shea butter (Heilbronn IM, Moffet GL, and Spring FS J. Chem. Soc. 1934, 1583), a butyrospermol synthase is characterized in this work using yeast and in folia heterologous expression assays.

Domaines: Botanique; Biochimie [q-bio.BM]

Edith Forestier, Carmen Romero-Segura, Irini Pateraki, Emilio Centeno, Vincent Compagnon, et al.. Distinct triterpene synthases in the laticifers of Euphorbia lathyris. Scientific Reports, 2019, 9, pp.4840. ⟨10.1038/s41598-019-40905-y⟩. ⟨hal-02381970⟩