Complete biosynthetic pathway of furochromones in Saposhnikovia divaricata and its evolutionary mechanism in Apiaceae plants
Furochromones are specific bioactive secondary metabolites of many Apiaceae plants. Their biosynthesis remains largely unexplored. In this work, we dissect the complete biosynthetic pathway of major furochromones in the medicinal plant Saposhnikovia divaricata by characterizing prenyltransferase, peucenin cyclase, methyltransferase, hydroxylase, and glycosyltransferases. De novo biosynthesis of prim-O-glucosylcimifugin and 5-O-methylvisamminoside is realized in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. Through comparative genomic and transcriptomic analyses, we further find that proximal duplication and high expression of a pentaketide chromone synthase gene SdPCS, together with the presence of a lineage-specific peucenin cyclase gene SdPC, lead to the predominant accumulation of furochromones in the roots of S. divaricata among surveyed Apiaceae plants. This study paves the way for metabolic engineering production of furochromones, and sheds light into evolutionary mechanisms of furochromone biosynthesis among Apiaceae plants.
Authors
- H Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5684-8655)
- Bao Nie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6299-9102)
- Chunxue Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8002-7558)
- Zilong Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7875-0704)
- Zhuangwei Hou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6873-3230)
- Hongye Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7427-0706)
- Yungang Tian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2589-7210)
- Wen-kai Sun
- Xiaoxu Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1427-8428)
- Min Ye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9952-2380)
- Jianlin Zou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4125-429X)
- Qingyan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3840-6976)
- Meng Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0540-5950)
- Liqun Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7666-9574)
- Weizhe Xu
- Li Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2068-7535)
Institutions
- Civil Aviation Administration of China (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
- Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58498-8
- Citations
- 8
- Primary Topic
- Phytochemical compounds biological activities
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.64
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China