Abstract
In this study, we attempt to engineer the prenylation reaction in the major fruits crop tomato (Solanum lycoperisicum L). Tomato plants were transformed with prenyltransferase cDNAs encoding SCO7190 (HypSc) and SfN8DT-1, which are derived from a Streptomyces strain and Sophora flavescens, respectively. These enzymes can specifically catalyze the addition of a dimethylallyl group to naringenin at the C6 and C8 atom, respectively, under the control of the fruit-specific E8 promoter. LC-MS analysis demonstrated that the presence of 8-dimethylallylnaringenin in tomato fruits overexpressing SfN8DT-1, whereas unexpectedly fruits overexpressing of SCO7190 (HypSc) produced 3-prenylnaringenin unlike in vitro assay using the recombinant protein. On the other hands, the Arabidopsis plants overexpressing SfN8DT-1 accumulated 8-dimethylallylkaempferol, which is also unlike the in vitro data of this prenyltransferase. Our results suggested that the product specificities could be largely dependent on the host plant species.
