Berberis wilsoniae

Berberine Berberis wilsoniae Coptis japonica Thalictrum minus... 

Breuling, M., Alfermann, A. W. and Reinhard, E. 1985. Culivation of cell cultures of Berberis wilsoniae in 20-1 airlift bioreactors. Plant Cell Reports, 4 220-223. 

Berberis wilsoniae (Berberidaceae), Erythrina crista-galli (Fabaceae)... 

The formation of the methylenedioxy bridge in Berberis has been found to be caused by the demethylating activity of a peroxidase (POD) found within the vesicle. It was also found that the cytochrome P450-requiring enzyme (canadine synthase) from microsomes of Berberis, Thalictrum and Coptis species formed the methylene bridge in (S)-tetrahydrocolumbamine (Ikezawa et al, 2003), but not in the quaternary alkaloid columbamine (Galneder et al, 1988 Zenk, 1995). Because of the substrate specificity of canadine s)mthase, the berberine pathway is considered to be that presented in Fig. 2.5 (Rueffer and Zenk, 1994). Columbamine, once proposed as an alternative route to berberine, is however converted to palmatine by a specific methyltransferase first isolated from Berberis wilsoniae cell cultures (Rueffer and Zenk, 1985 Ikezawa et al, 2003). 

Gesell, A., et al.. Heterologous expression of two FAD -dependent oxidases with (S)-tetrahydroprotoberberine oxidase activity from Arge mone mexicana and Berberis wilsoniae in insect cells. Planta, 2011. 233(6) p. 1185-97. 

An enzyme, (5)-tetrahydroprotoberberine oxidase, from suspension-cultured cells of Berberis wilsoniae catalyzes the removal of four hydrogen atoms from a number of tetrahy-droprotoberberine alkaloids in the presence of oxygen (Amann et al., 1988). 

Amann, M, N. Nagakura, and M. H. Zenk, Purification and properties of (5)-tetrahydroprotoberberine oxidase from suspension-cultured cells of Berberis wilsoniae, Eur. J. Biochem., 175, 17-25 (1988). 

Sometimes the ratio between the amounts of several alkaloids in the plant differs markedly from that of the cell cultures. In the culture of Berberis wilsoniae var. sub-... 

Fig. 2. Comparison between the alkaloid production of the cell culture, the seedling, and the intact root of Berberis wilsoniae var. subcaulialata (Berberidaceae)...

Rothenberger S (1982) Untersuchungen zur Bildung von Protoberberinalkaloiden in Zellkulturen von Berberis wilsoniae. PhD thesis... 

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