Coptis japonica, -norcoclaurine

The bacterium E. coli and yeast S. cerevisiae have been recently explored as production hosts of plant alkaloids [15, 101, 102]. In both cases, the metabolic engineering efforts in microorganisms entailed the reconstmction of the plant biosynthetic pathways (Fig. 8.12) [101]. To assemble an artificial pathway to achieve (S)-reticuline biosynthesis in E. coli. Micrococcus luteus monoamine oxidase (MAO) was introduced together with Coptis japonica norcoclaurine... 

Minami H, Dubouzet E, Iwasa K, Sato F. Functional analysis of norcoclaurine synthase in Coptis japonica. J. Biol. Chem. 2007 282 6274-6282. 

Sato F, Tsujita T, Katagiri Y, Yoshida S, Yamada Y. Purification and characterization of S-adenosyl-L-methionine norcoclaurine 6-O-methyltransferase from cultured Coptis japonica cells. Eur. J. Biochem. 1994 225 125-131. 

Norcoclaurine 6-0-methyltransfera e Coptis japonica S-adenosylmethlonIne-dependent 0-methyttransferase ao- E... 

Fig. 8.12 Reconstruction of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid (BIA) pathway in microorganisms. MAO bacterial monoamine oxidase from Micrococcus luteus, NCS norcoclaurine synthase from Coptis japonica, 6-OMT norcoclaurine 6-0-methyltransferase from Coptis japonica, CNMT, coclaurine-]V-melhyltransferase from Coptis japonica, 4-OMT 3 -hydroxy-iV-methylcoclaurine-4 -0-methyltransferase from Coptis Japonica, CYP80G2 plant cytochrome P450 enzymes from Coptis japonica, BBE berbeiine bridge enzyme from Coptis japonica (Adopted from Ref. [101])...

The isoquinoline pathway s enzyme orthologs in other plants showed that genes of methyltransferase family such as (R,S)-reticuline 7-0-methyltransferase, coclaurine 4 -0-methyltransferase, (S)-norcoclaurine 6-0-methyltrasferase, columbamine 0-methyltransferase, coclaurine A-methyltransferase, putrescine A-methyltransferase responsible for the production of reticuline, coclaurine, norcoclaurine, columbaine have been reported from Papaver somniferum, Coptis japonica, Thalictrum flavum, Thalictrum tuberosum, Coffea liberica, Cojfea arabica, Cojfea canephora, Nicotiana tabacum. Solarium tuberosum. Datura stramonium, Hyoscyamus niger, and Atropa belladonna. Pathway contains information of about four alkaloids such as dopamine, colchicine, ephedrine, and methamphetamine and identified two missing links. 

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