Matilde Florean

BAHD news from Euphorbia peplus: identification of acyltransferase enzymes involved in ingenane diterpenoid biosynthesis The plant family Euphorbiaceae are an abundant source of structurally complex diterpenoids, many of which have reported anti-cancer, anti-HIV, and anti-inflammatory activities. Among these, ingenol-3-...

All good things must come to an end... and apparently, all BAHD ones too! 😅
Check out our latest preprint on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thanks to the great team at @oconnorlab.bsky.social, @mpi-ce.bsky.social, and our collaborators at Uni York — couldn't have done it without you all!

The secondary metabolism collaboratory: a database and web discussion portal for secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters Abstract. Secondary metabolites are small molecules produced by all corners of life, often with specialized bioactive functions with clinical and environme

Very pleased to announce that our manuscript describing @jgi.doe.gov 's Secondary Metabolism Collaboratory is now available! SMC has been up and active for a while now, but I'm really excited to start seeing more activity on here. Lots more to come.

doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

Multiplexed perturbation of yew reveals cryptic proteins that enable a total biosynthesis of baccatin III and Taxol precursors Plants make complex and potent therapeutic molecules, but difficulties in sourcing from natural producers or chemical synthesis can challenge their use in the clinic. A prominent example is the anti-c...

Our Taxol pathway preprint!
We developed a systematic strategy to activate and identify gene sets in plants. Used it to identify 8 genes in the Taxol pathway, enabling a 20-gene biosynthesis of a Taxol precursor.
Biggest surprise: a new protein that helps our oxidases produce the correct product

(2/2) We discovered that core eudicot use TSB-like a catalytically dead version of the tryptophan synthase beta-subunit (TSB) to highjack and fool tryptophan synthase alpha-subunit (TSA) into efficiently producing indole instead of tryptophan!

(1/2) Indole is a very important compound for plants to defend themselves 🛡️, attract pollinators 🐝, communicate with other plants 🌱 and produce natural products 🧪.

However, how the majority of plants produce it was unknown.

Highjacked by a pseudoenzyme: How eudicot plants make indole bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

The working dead 🧟‍♀️: not just a metaphor for PhD students but also an enzymatic strategy!

If you are curious how a pseudoenzyme (aka the “dead” version of an enzyme) produces indole in plants 🌱check out our preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#PlantBiology#natprod @oconnorlab.bsky.social