Root-Specific Production of Secondary Metabolites : Regulation of Shikonin Biosynthesis by Light in Lithospermum erythrorhizon.

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Roots of medicinal plants are often used as crude drugs, as they highly accumulate secondary metabolites that have medicinal activities. Lithospermum erythrorhizon produces shikonin derivatives, red naphthoquinone pigments, and accumulate them exclusively in the roots. As a model system of an inducible secondary metabolite in medicinal plants, the biosynthetic route of shikonin and its regulation mechanism have been intensively studied with the cell cultures. The induction of shikonin production is strictly regulated at the geranylation step of a shikonin precursor, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid. Among various regulatory elements of shikonin production, light plays a critical role in the negative regulation of its biosynthesis. Under illumination, L. erythrorhizon cells accumulate the glucoside of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid in the vacuoles, and start to produce shikonin by induction of geranyltransferase when transferred to darkness. By subtractive hybridization, a cDNA whose expression pattern paralleled shikonin production was isolated, and designated as LeDI-2 (L. erythrorhizon dark-inducible gene). Its antisense-induced hairy roots showed lower shikonin productivity, without affecting geranyltransferase. The gene expression of LeDI-2 along with other biosynthetic genes in the intact plant is also reviewed. Furthermore, an example of metabolic engineering of shikonin biosynthesis in the hairy root of L. erythrorhizon using a bacterial gene is described.
日本生薬学会の論文
2001-04-20

Root-Specific Production of Secondary Metabolites : Regulation of Shikonin Biosynthesis by Light in Lithospermum erythrorhizon.

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