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The rice ent-KAURENE SYNTHASE LIKE 2 encodes a functional ent-beyerene synthase
Daisuke Tezuka1, Akira Ito2, Wataru Mitsuhashi2
1Hokkaido Agricultural Research Center, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), Toyohira-ku, Sapporo 062-8555, Japan; Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8589, Japan.
Abstract:
The rice genome contains a family of kaurene synthase-like (OsKSL) genes that are responsible for the biosynthesis of various diterpenoids, including gibberellins and phytoalexins. While many OsKSL genes have been functionally characterized, the functionality of OsKSL2 is still unclear and it has been proposed to be a pseudogene. Here, we found that OsKSL2 is drastically induced in roots by methyl jasmonate treatment and we successfully isolated a full-length cDNA for OsKSL2. Sequence analysis of the OsKSL2 cDNA revealed that the open reading frame of OsKSL2 is mispredicted in the two major rice genome databases, IRGSP-RAP and MSU-RGAP. In vitro conversion assay indicated that recombinant OsKSL2 catalyzes the cyclization of ent-CDP into ent-beyerene as a major and ent-kaurene as a minor product. ent-Beyerene is an antimicrobial compound and OsKSL2 is induced by methyl jasmonate; these data suggest that OsKSL2 is a functional ent-beyerene synthase that is involved in defense mechanisms in rice roots.
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