How plants control their active ingredients epigenetically
A new study shows how the production of pharmaceutically relevant substances in nightshade plants works and is regulated epigenetically.
Plants are true masters at producing a wide variety of chemical substances, for example to protect themselves against predators or pathogens. Among the hundreds of thousands of active plant substances, quite a few are also of interest to humans due to their medicinal effects. Many nightshade plants, for example, produce what are known as withanolides - a diverse group of steroids with health-relevant properties. The biosynthesis of these substances and their regulation have hardly been researched to date.
The research team led by Professor Claude Becker, a geneticist at the Faculty of Biology at LMU, has now discovered a gene cluster that is responsible for the synthesis of withanolides in the ground cherry (Physalis grisea). The study was carried out in collaboration with partners at the Max Planck Institute of Plant Molecular Physiology in Golm and at the University of Hohenheim and was recently published in the scientific journal PNAS. "In the genome, gene clusters such as the one we identified house the genes that code for the enzymes of a biosynthetic pathway in a very small space," explains Becker. "Such clusters ensure the joint regulation and inheritance of these related genes."
In the case of the withanolide cluster, the team found a duplication in the genome. The two resulting sub-clusters form two functionally separate units: One is active exclusively in roots, the other only in above-ground plant tissues. "What surprised us is that the spatial and functional separation of the two units appears to be epigenetically regulated," says Becker. The two cluster versions therefore differ from each other in terms of the local structure and chemical modifications of the genetic material. The researchers assume that this separation allows the plant to build up an adapted chemical defense in the above- and below-ground tissues.
Through comparative genomic studies, the team was also able to show that the duplication of the gene cluster only took place in the group of bladder cherries and their close relatives, while the cluster itself is highly conserved within the nightshade family, but is absent in the tomato and potato genus. "Our study provides the first insights into the production of the diverse and multifunctional group of withanolides and thus provides the basis for the potential development of alternative pesticides and active pharmaceutical ingredients," says Becker.
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Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
Original publication
Santiago Priego-Cubero, Eva Knoch, Zhidan Wang, Saleh Alseekh, Karl-Heinz Braun, Philipp Chapman, Alisdair R. Fernie, Chang Liu, Claude Becker; "Subfunctionalization and epigenetic regulation of a biosynthetic gene cluster in Solanaceae"; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, 2025-2-20
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