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Updated: Mar 27, 2026

A Customizable Approach for the Enzymatic Production and Purification of Diterpenoid Natural Products
Published on: October 4, 2019
Comprehensive genomic analysis reveals the class II diterpene cyclases in Dodonaea viscosa
Kristin Helwig1, Reuben J Peters2
1Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA; Kemin Industries, Des Moines, IA, 50317, USA.
None:
Dodonaea viscosa is known for its rich arsenal of phytochemicals and has been traditionally used as a folk medicine. Decades of research have targeted isolation of the potent bioactives, including the unique clerodane and labdane diterpenoids identified in this plant. Growing interest in these bioactive compounds from D. viscosa Jacq. provides impetus towards elucidation of their biosynthetic pathway to enable the potential for scalable production via synthetic biology. Here a draft nuclear, along with complete chloroplast and mitochondrial, genome sequences for D. viscosa, along with annotation of the nuclear genome, are presented. This enabled discovery and biochemical characterization of two class II diterpene cyclase enzymes, DvCPS and DvKPS, which respectively catalyze the formation of ent-copalyl pyrophosphate and ent-kolavenyl pyrophosphate, precursors to the labdane and clerodane bioactive diterpenoids found in this medicinal herb.
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