Host: The Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists
Pages 0069
Prenylated flavonoids show various physiological and pharmacological activities, therefore they have been drawn a large attention of researchers in the pharmaceutical, food and agricultural field. Detailed biochemical studies demonstrated that the prenyl chain plays a crucial role in their activities, while the gene coding for prenyltransferase of flavonoids has been unknown more than three decades until very recently. The first cDNA encoding flavanone-specific plant prenyltransferase, naringenin 8-dimethylallyltransferase (SfN8DT-1) was isolated from Sophora flavescens.
In this study, to figure out the overview of plant flavonoid prenyltransferase family, we have cloned several candidate genes coding prenyltransferases that accept other type of flavonoid as the substrate using S. flavescens EST information. Enzymatic characterization of these clones in yeast expression system has revealed that one of them encodes isoflavone-specific prenyltransferase, genistein 6-dimethylallyltransferase (SfG6DT). The gene expression analysis of SfG6DT and subcellular localization will be also reported.
