Isoprenoid biosynthesis regulation in poplars by methylerythritol phosphate and mevalonic acid pathways

Ali Movahedi; Hui Wei; Boas Pucker; Mostafa Ghaderi-Zefrehei; Fatemeh Rasouli; Ali Kiani-Pouya; Tingbo Jiang; Qiang Zhuge; Liming Yang; Xiaohong Zhou

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.968780

Isoprenoid biosynthesis regulation in poplars by methylerythritol phosphate and mevalonic acid pathways

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Sep 30:13:968780. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.968780. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Ali Movahedi¹, Hui Wei², Boas Pucker³, Mostafa Ghaderi-Zefrehei⁴, Fatemeh Rasouli^{5

6}, Ali Kiani-Pouya^{5

6}, Tingbo Jiang⁷, Qiang Zhuge¹, Liming Yang¹, Xiaohong Zhou⁸

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Forest Genetics and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China.
² Key Laboratory of Landscape Plant Genetics and Breeding, School of Life Sciences, Nantong University, Nantong, China.
³ Institute of Plant Biology and BRICS, TU Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany.
⁴ Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Yasouj University, Yasouj, Iran.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Molecular Plant Genetics, Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, College of Science and Engineering, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

Abstract

It is critical to develop plant isoprenoid production when dealing with human-demanded industries such as flavoring, aroma, pigment, pharmaceuticals, and biomass used for biofuels. The methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) and mevalonic acid (MVA) plant pathways contribute to the dynamic production of isoprenoid compounds. Still, the cross-talk between MVA and MEP in isoprenoid biosynthesis is not quite recognized. Regarding the rate-limiting steps in the MEP pathway through catalyzing 1-deoxy-D-xylulose5-phosphate synthase and 1-deoxy-D-xylulose5-phosphate reductoisomerase (DXR) and also the rate-limiting step in the MVA pathway through catalyzing 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR), the characterization and function of HMGR from Populus trichocarpa (PtHMGR) were analyzed. The results indicated that PtHMGR overexpressors (OEs) displayed various MEP and MVA-related gene expressions compared to NT poplars. The overexpression of PtDXR upregulated MEP-related genes and downregulated MVA-related genes. The overexpression of PtDXR and PtHMGR affected the isoprenoid production involved in both MVA and MEP pathways. Here, results illustrated that the PtHMGR and PtDXR play significant roles in regulating MEP and MVA-related genes and derived isoprenoids. This study clarifies cross-talk between MVA and MEP pathways. It demonstrates the key functions of HMGR and DXR in this cross-talk, which significantly contribute to regulate isoprenoid biosynthesis in poplars.

Keywords: DXR; HMGR; isoprenoid biosynthesis; methylerythritol phosphate pathway; mevalonic acid pathway; poplar.