Bioconversion of Terpenoids by the Biochemical Reaction of the Plant Cultured Cells

Abstract

The biochemical potentiality of plant cultured cells to transform foreign substrates is of considerable interest in connection with the use of the cultured cells as a bioreactor. We have now investigated the bioconversion of the foreign substrates, such as monoterpenoid alcohols and cycloalkanols, with the cultured cells of Nicotiana tabacum for generalizing the bioconversion pattern.
The cultured cells were found to have the ability to transform these foreign substrates as follow: ( i ) the regio- and stereo-selective hydroxylation at the C-C double bond as well as its allylic positions, ( ii ) the hydrolysis of the acetoxyl group, (iii) the interconversion between 5- to 8-membered cycloalkanols and the corresponding ketones; it is at equilibrium and the balance in the equilibrium depends on the number of carbon atoms in the carbocyclic ring of the substrates, and (iv) the enantioselective bioconversion. It was thus elucidated these bioconversion patterns are determined by the functional group existing in the substrates and the structure in the vicinity of the functional group.