First report of triterpenes pathway in Calotropis procera revealed to accumulate beta-amyrin
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 4, 2025

Transient Expression in Nicotiana Benthamiana Leaves for Triterpene Production at a Preparative Scale
Published on: August 16, 2018
Sabah Hassan1,2,3, Ahmed Atef1,2, Hani M Ali1,2
1Biological Science Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Abstract:
The major reports on Calotropis procera (C. procera) indicated the importance of this plant as a resource of pharmaceutically active ingredients as well as its medical advantages. β-amyrin (BA) is a significant substance in this plant and has a pharmacological effects in some frameworks, like focal and fringe sensory system, digestive and immune systems. In this study, the impact of sunlight before and after irrigation on the BA production in C. procera is studied its pathway with involved eight key enzymes. The eight enzymes' genes were characterized and successfully submitted to NCBI; AAS (acc.no. KU997645) for α-amyrin synthase, BAS (acc.no. MW976955) for β-amyrin synthase, SE (acc.no. MW976956) for squalene epoxidase, SS (acc.no. MW976957) for squalene synthase, GPPS, (acc.no. MW976958) for geranyl pyrophosphate synthase, FPPS (acc.no. MW976959) for farnasyl pyrophosphate synthase, CAS1, (acc.no. MZ00598) for cycloartenol synthase1 and LS (acc.no. MZ005982) for lupeol synthase. qRT-PCR analysis revealed high expression levels of GPPS, FPPS, SS, SE, and BAS genes at all times specially midday. Otherwise, CAS1, LS and BAS expression levels were very low at all daylight periods. The UPLC β-amyrin data are in accordance with qRT-PCR results. This indicates that triterpenes biosynthetic pathway in C. procera is going to β-amyrin accumulation with the highest level at midday.
Related Concept Videos
C4 Pathway and CAM
C4 Pathway
The C4 pathway is used by plants such as...
Biosynthesis of Lipids
Amino Acid Biosynthetic Pathways

