The role of the Golden2-like (GLK) transcription factor in regulating terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus.

KEY MESSAGE: A GLK homologue was identified and functionally characterized in Catharanthus roseus. Silencing CrGLK with VIGS or the chloroplast retrograde signaling inducer lincomycin increased terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthesis. Catharanthus roseus is the sole source of the chemotherapeutic terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) vinblastine and vincristine. TIA pathway genes, particularly genes in the vindoline pathway, are expressed at higher levels in immature versus mature leaves, but the molecular mechanisms responsible for this developmental regulation are unknown. We investigated the role of GOLDEN2-LIKE (GLK) transcription factors in contributing to this ontogenetic regulation since GLKs are active in seedlings upon light exposure and in the leaf's early development, but their activity is repressed as leaves age and senesce. We identified a GLK homologue in C. roseus and functionally characterized its role in regulating TIA biosynthesis, with a focus on the vindoline pathway, by transiently reducing its expression through two separate methods: virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) and application of chloroplast retrograde signaling inducers, norflurazon and lincomycin. Reducing CrGLK levels with each method reduced chlorophyll accumulation and the expression of the light harvesting complex subunit (LHCB2.2), confirming its functional homology with GLKs in other plant species. In contrast, reducing CrGLK via VIGS or lincomycin increased TIA accumulation and TIA pathway gene expression, suggesting that CrGLK may repress TIA biosynthesis. However, norflurazon had no effect on TIA gene expression, indicating that reducing CrGLK alone is not sufficient to induce TIA biosynthesis. Future work is needed to clarify the specific molecular mechanisms leading to increased TIA biosynthesis with CrGLK silencing. This is the first identification and characterization of GLK in C. roseus and the first investigation of how chloroplast retrograde signaling might regulate TIA biosynthesis.

EASI Transformation Protocol: An Agrobacterium-Mediated Transient Transformation Protocol for Catharanthus roseus Seedlings.

Catharanthus roseus produces medicinal terpenoid indole alkaloids, including the critical anti-cancer compounds vinblastine and vincristine in its leaves. Recently, we developed a highly efficient transient expression method relying on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of seedlings to facilitate rapid and high-throughput studies on the regulation of terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthesis in C. roseus . We detail our optimized protocol known as efficient Agrobacterium-mediated seedling infiltration method (EASI), including the development of constructs used in EASI and an example experimental design that includes appropriate controls. We applied our EASI method to rapidly screen and evaluate transcriptional activators and repressors and promoter activity. Our EASI method can be used for promoter transactivation studies or transgene overexpression paired with downstream analyses like quantitative PCR or metabolite analysis. Our protocol takes about 16 days from sowing seeds to obtaining the results of the experiment.

Generation of Stable Catharanthus roseus Hairy Root Lines with Agrobacterium rhizogenes.

Agrobacterium rhizogenes is the bacterial agent that causes hairy root disease in dicots and is purposefully engineered for the development of transgenic hairy root cultures. Due to their genetic and metabolic stability, hairy root cultures offer advantages as a tissue culture system for investigating the function of transgenes and as a production platform for specialized metabolites or proteins. The process for generating hairy root cultures involves first infecting the explant with A. rhizogenes, excising and eliminating A. rhizogenes from the emerging hairy roots, selecting for transgenic hairy roots on plates containing the selective agent, confirming genomic integration of transgenes by PCR, and finally adapting the hairy roots in liquid media. Here we provide a detailed protocol for developing and maintaining transgenic hairy root cultures of our medicinal plant of interest, Catharanthus roseus.

High-efficiency genome editing in plants mediated by a Cas9 gene containing multiple introns.

The recent discovery of the mode of action of the CRISPR/Cas9 system has provided biologists with a useful tool for generating site-specific mutations in genes of interest. In plants, site-targeted mutations are usually obtained by the stable transformation of a Cas9 expression construct into the plant genome. The efficiency of introducing mutations in genes of interest can vary considerably depending on the specific features of the constructs, including the source and nature of the promoters and terminators used for the expression of the Cas9 gene and the guide RNA, and the sequence of the Cas9 nuclease itself. To optimize the efficiency of the Cas9 nuclease in generating mutations in target genes in Arabidopsis thaliana, we investigated several features of its nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence, including the codon usage, the number of nuclear localization signals (NLSs), and the presence or absence of introns. We found that the Cas9 gene codon usage had some effect on its activity and that two NLSs worked better than one. However, the highest efficiency of the constructs was achieved by the addition of 13 introns into the Cas9 coding sequence, which dramatically improved the editing efficiency of the constructs. None of the primary transformants obtained with a Cas9 gene lacking introns displayed a knockout mutant phenotype, whereas between 70% and 100% of the primary transformants generated with the intronized Cas9 gene displayed mutant phenotypes. The intronized Cas9 gene was also found to be effective in other plants such as Nicotiana benthamiana and Catharanthus roseus.

EASI Transformation: An Efficient Transient Expression Method for Analyzing Gene Function in Catharanthus roseus Seedlings.

The Catharanthus roseus plant is the exclusive source of the valuable anticancer terpenoid indole alkaloids, vinblastine (VB) and vincristine (VC). The recent availability of transcriptome and genome resources for C. roseus necessitates a fast and reliable method for studying gene function. In this study, we developed an Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression method to enable the functional study of genes rapidly in planta, conserving the compartmentalization observed in the VB and VC pathway. We focused on (1) improving the transformation method (syringe versus vacuum agroinfiltration) and cultivation conditions (seedling age, Agrobacterium density, and time point of maximum transgene expression), (2) improving transformation efficiency through the constitutive expression of the virulence genes and suppressing RNA silencing mechanisms, and (3) improving the vector design by incorporating introns, quantitative and qualitative reporter genes (luciferase and GUS genes), and accounting for transformation heterogeneity across the tissue using an internal control. Of all the parameters tested, vacuum infiltration of young seedlings (10-day-old, harvested 3 days post-infection) resulted in the strongest increase in transgene expression, at 18 - 57 fold higher than either vacuum or syringe infiltration of other seedling ages. Endowing the A. tumefaciens strain with the mutated VirGN54D or silencing suppressors within the same plasmid as the reporter gene further increased expression by 2 - 10 fold. For accurate measurement of promoter transactivation or activity, we included an internal control to normalize the differences in plant mass and transformation efficiency. Including the normalization gene (Renilla luciferase) on the same plasmid as the reporter gene (firefly luciferase) consistently yielded a high signal and a high correlation between RLUC and FLUC. As proof of principle, we applied this approach to investigate the regulation of the CroSTR1 promoter with the well-known activator ORCA3 and repressor ZCT1. Our method demonstrated the quantitative assessment of both the activation and repression of promoter activity in C. roseus. Our efficient Agrobacterium-mediated seedling infiltration (EASI) protocol allows highly efficient, reproducible, and homogenous transformation of C. roseus cotyledons and provides a timely tool for the community to rapidly assess the function of genes in planta, particularly for investigating how transcription factors regulate terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthesis.

The regulation of ZCT1, a transcriptional repressor of monoterpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthetic genes in Catharanthus roseus.

Cys2/His2-type (C2H2) zinc finger proteins, such as ZCT1, are an important class of transcription factors involved in growth, development, and stress responses in plants. In the medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus, the zinc finger Catharanthus transcription factor (ZCT) family represses monoterpenoid indole alkaloid (MIA) biosynthetic gene expression. Here, we report the analysis of the ZCT1 promoter, which contains several hormone-responsive elements. ZCT1 is responsive to not only jasmonate, as was previously known, but is also induced by the synthetic auxin, 1-naphthalene acetic acid (1-NAA). Through promoter deletion analysis, we show that an activation sequence-1-like (as-1-like)-motif and other motifs contribute significantly to ZCT1 expression in seedlings. We also show that the activator ORCA3 does not transactivate the expression of ZCT1 in seedlings, but ZCT1 represses its own promoter, suggesting a feedback mechanism by which the expression of ZCT1 can be limited.

Silencing the Transcriptional Repressor, ZCT1, Illustrates the Tight Regulation of Terpenoid Indole Alkaloid Biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus Hairy Roots.

The Catharanthus roseus plant is the source of many valuable terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs), including the anticancer compounds vinblastine and vincristine. Transcription factors (TFs) are promising metabolic engineering targets due to their ability to regulate multiple biosynthetic pathway genes. To increase TIA biosynthesis, we elicited the TIA transcriptional activators (ORCAs and other unidentified TFs) with the plant hormone, methyl jasmonate (MJ), while simultaneously silencing the expression of the transcriptional repressor ZCT1. To silence ZCT1, we developed transgenic hairy root cultures of C. roseus that expressed an estrogen-inducible Zct1 hairpin for activating RNA interference. The presence of 17ß-estradiol (5µM) effectively depleted Zct1 in hairy root cultures elicited with MJ dosages that either optimize or inhibit TIA production (250 or 1000µM). However, silencing Zct1 was not sufficient to increase TIA production or the expression of the TIA biosynthetic genes (G10h, Tdc, and Str), illustrating the tight regulation of TIA biosynthesis. The repression of the TIA biosynthetic genes at the inhibitory MJ dosage does not appear to be solely regulated by ZCT1. For instance, while Zct1 and Zct2 levels decreased through activating the Zct1 hairpin, Zct3 levels remained elevated. Since ZCT repressors have redundant yet distinct functions, silencing all three ZCTs may be necessary to relieve their repression of alkaloid biosynthesis.

Optimizing the transient Fast Agro-mediated Seedling Transformation (FAST) method in Catharanthus roseus seedlings.

KEY MESSAGE: An Agro-mediated transformation method has been adapted in Catharanthus roseus seedlings for transient overexpression. Our results suggest that Agro-mediated methods may induce defense-related genes, which should be considered in its application. The Fast Agro-mediated Seedling Transformation (FAST) method, which involves the co-cultivation and transient transformation of young seedlings with Agrobacterium, was adapted and optimized in Catharanthus roseus. We investigated the optimal conditions for Gus expression by varying the Agrobacterium density (OD600 = 0.29 and 0.50), A. rhizogenes strain (15834 and R1000), and co-cultivation time in liquid (2, 12, or 24 h) followed by incubation time on solid media (1 or 2 days). Transformation efficiency was assessed quantitatively in terms of average GUS intensity per cotyledon surface area and percentage of cotyledons transformed. GUS staining was observed in 100% of cotyledons co-cultivated with A. rhizogenes (OD600 = 0.50) co-transformed with the Mas promoter-driven Gus and pSoup helper plasmids, in the presence of 0.01% v/v Silwet L-77 for 24 h in liquid followed by 2-days on solid media. In addition, we observed that co-cultivation with Agrobacterium strongly induced Zct1 and Orca3, two transcription factors known to regulate defense-related alkaloid biosynthesis in C. roseus. Homologous transcription factors regulate defense responses in many plant species. Therefore, possible induction of defense-related genes by Agro-mediated transformation should be a consideration in experimental design.

Jasmonate-dependent alkaloid biosynthesis in Catharanthus Roseus hairy root cultures is correlated with the relative expression of Orca and Zct transcription factors.

The effects of methyl jasmonate (MJ) dosage on terpenoid indole alkaloid (TIA) biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus are correlated with the relative levels of specific MJ-responsive transcription factors. In this study, the expression of transcription factors (Orca, Zct, Gbf, Myc2, At-hook, and Wrky1), TIA pathway genes (G10h, Tdc, Str, and Sgd), and TIA metabolites (secologanin, strictosidine, and tabersonine) were investigated in C. roseus hairy root cultures elicited with a range of MJ dosages (0-1,000 µM) during mid-exponential growth. The highest production of TIA metabolites occurs at 250 µM MJ, increasing by 150-370% compared with untreated controls. At this MJ dosage, the expression of the transcriptional activators (Orca) is dramatically increased (29-40 fold) while the levels of the transcriptional repressors (Zct) remain low (2-7 fold). Simultaneously, the expression of genes coding for key enzymes involved in TIA biosynthesis increases by 8-15 fold. In contrast, high MJ dosages (1,000 µM) inhibit the production of TIA metabolites. This dosage is correlated with elevated expression levels of Zct (up to 40-fold) relative to Orca (13-19-fold) and minimal induction of the TIA biosynthetic genes (0-6 fold). The significant changes in the expression of Orca and Zct with MJ dosage do not correspond to changes in the expression of the early-response transcription factors (AT-hook, Myc2, and Wrky1) believed to regulate Orca and Zct. In summary, these observations suggest that the dependence of alkaloid production on MJ dosage in C. roseus may be partly mediated through the relative levels of Orca and Zct family transcription factors.

Application of an integrated LC-UV-MS-NMR platform to the identification of secondary metabolites from cell cultures: benzophenanthridine alkaloids from elicited Eschscholzia californica (california poppy) cell cultures().

Plant cell and tissue cultures are a scalable and controllable alternative to whole plants for obtaining natural products of medical relevance. Cultures can be optimized for high yields of desired metabolites using rapid profiling assays such as HPLC. We describe an approach to establishing a rapid assay for profiling cell culture expression systems using a novel microscale LC-UV-MS-NMR platform, designed to acquire both MS and NMR each at their optimal sensitivity, by using nanosplitter MS from 4 mm analytical HPLC columns, and offline microdroplet NMR. The approach is demonstrated in the analysis of elicited Eschscholzia californica cell cultures induced with purified yeast extract to produce benzophenanthridine alkaloids. Preliminary HPLC-UV provides an overview of the changes in the production of alkaloids with time after elicitation. At the time point corresponding to the production of the most alkaloids, the integrated LC-MS-microcoil NMR platform is used for structural identification of extracted alkaloids. Eight benzophenanthridine alkaloids were identified at the sub-microgram level. This paper demonstrates the utility of the nanosplitter LC-MS/microdroplet NMR platform when establishing cell culture expression systems.

Shotgun proteomic analysis of yeast-elicited California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) suspension cultures producing enhanced levels of benzophenanthridine alkaloids.

The California poppy, Eschscholzia californica, produces benzophenanthridine alkaloids (BPAs), an important class of biologically active compounds. Cell cultures of E. californica were investigated as an alternative and scalable method for producing these valuable compounds; treatment with yeast extract increased production from low levels to 23 mg/g dry weight (DW) of BPAs. A shotgun proteomic analysis of E. californica cell cultures was undertaken to explore changes in metabolism associated with enhanced BPA production. We implemented differential centrifugation and then shotgun proteomics based on nanoliquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (nano-LC-MS/MS) for peptide separation and analysis. A unigene database available for E. californica was translated and utilized for protein identification. Approximately 646 proteins (3% false discovery rate at the protein level) were identified. Differentially abundant proteins observed with elicitation included enzymes involved in (S)-adenosyl methionine (SAM) biosynthesis and BPA biosynthesis. These results demonstrate (1) the identification of proteins from a medicinal plant using shotgun proteomics combined with a well-annotated, translated unigene database and (2) the potential utility of proteomics for exploring changes in metabolism associated with enhanced secondary metabolite production.

Assessing the limitations to terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus hairy root cultures through gene expression profiling and precursor feeding.

The production of pharmaceutically important terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) from Catharanthus roseus is partly regulated at the transcriptional level. In this study, limitations in TIA biosynthesis from C. roseus hairy root cultures were assessed through gene expression profiling and precursor feeding. The transcript levels of key TIA pathway genes (G10h, Tdc, Str, and Sgd) and metabolite levels associated with the TIA pathway (tryptamine, loganin, secologanin, strictosidine, ajmalicine, serpentine, and tabersonine) were monitored using quantitative RT-PCR and HPLC, respectively. In cultures elicited with methyl jasmonate (250 microM MeJA on day 21), G10h, Tdc, Str, and Sgd expression increased by 9.1, 3.1, 6.7, and 8.3-fold, respectively, after 24 h. Up-regulation of gene expression was followed by a 160, 440, and 420% increase in strictosidine, ajmalicine, and tabersonine levels, respectively, after 5 days. Precursors loganin, tryptamine, or their combination were fed to noninduced and MeJA-induced cultures to complement the above studies. TIA production was not significantly enhanced in either noninduced or MeJA-induced cultures with precursor feeding. In noninduced cells, steps downstream of loganin and tryptamine were limiting (SLS, STR, or SGD) because either loganin or tryptamine accumulated in the cells with precursor feeding. These bottlenecks were partly overcome in MeJA-induced cultures as the expression of Str and Sgd genes and TIA production increased. However, secologanin accumulated in MeJA-induced cultures with precursor feeding, suggesting that STR was likely limiting under MeJA-induced conditions.

Synergistic effects of sequential treatment with methyl jasmonate, salicylic acid and yeast extract on benzophenanthridine alkaloid accumulation and protein expression in Eschscholtzia californica suspension cultures.

To develop an optimal bioprocess for secondary metabolite production and explain the bioprocess at the molecular level, we examine the synergistic effects of sequential treatment with methyl jasmonate (MJ), salicylic acid (SA) and yeast extract (YE) on benzophenanthridine alkaloid accumulation and protein expression in Eschscholtzia californica suspension cultures. Serial treatment of MJ, SA and YE at 24h intervals enhanced the accumulation of dihydrosanguinarine (2.5 times) and sanguinarine (5.5 times). This sequential treatment using different signal elicitors was more effective than single elicitor or simultaneous treatment of the elicitors; it induced benzophenanthridine alkaloid accumulation to 917.7+/-42.0mg/L. Also, (S)-methylcoclaurine-3'-hydroxylase (CYP80B1) and 3'-hydroxy-(S)-N-methylcoclaurine-4'-O-methyltransferase (4'OMT) expressions among enzymes in sanguinarine biosynthetic pathway explained the synergistic effects by sequential treatment of the elicitors. The sequential treatment strategy using elicitors related to different signal transduction pathways can be used to design better processes to increase accumulation of secondary metabolites in plant cell culture. Analysis of protein expression provides the detailed information about metabolite accumulation through the correlated results.

Enhanced benzophenanthridine alkaloid production and protein expression with combined elicitor in Eschscholtzia californica suspension cultures.

Production of the benzophenanthridine alkaloids in Eschscholtzia californica suspension cell cultures was optimized by adding 0.5 mg methyl jasmonate (MJ) and 0.02 mg salicylic acid (SA)/g FCW after 7 days cultivation. Sanguinarine reached 24 mg/g DCW by such treatment; 10 times higher than in control cell cultures. MJ and SA induced expression of berberine bridge enzyme and 3'-hydroxy-(S)-N-methylcoclaurine-4'-O-methyltransferase, respectively. MJ plus SA induced over-expression of both enzymes.

Precursor limitations in methyl jasmonate-induced Catharanthus roseus cell cultures.

Jasmonates enhance the expression of various genes involved in terpenoid indole alkaloid (TIA) biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus. We applied precursor feeding to our C. roseus suspensions to determine how methyl jasmonate (MJ) alters the precursor availability for TIA biosynthesis. C. roseus suspensions were induced with MJ (100 microM) on day 6 and fed loganin (0.30 mM), tryptamine (0.15 mM), loganin plus tryptamine, or geraniol (0.1-1.0 mM) on day 7. While MJ increased ajmalicine production by 3-fold, induced cultures were still limited by terpenoid precursors. However, both induced and non-induced cultures became tryptamine-limited with excess loganin. Geraniol feeding also increased ajmalicine production in non-induced cultures. But MJ appeared to increase geraniol availability in induced cultures, due presumably to the increased expression of Dxs with MJ addition.

Ajmalicine production in methyl jasmonate-induced Catharanthus roseus cell cultures depends on Ca2+ level.

Cytosolic Ca(2+) and jasmonate mediate signals that induce defense responses in plants. In this study, the interaction between Ca(2+) and methyl jasmonate (MJ) in modulating defense responses was investigated by monitoring ajmalicine production in Catharanthus roseus suspension cultures. C. roseus suspensions were treated with nine combinations of CaCl(2) (3, 23, and 43 mM) and MJ (0, 10, and 100 microM) on day 6 of growth. Increased Ca(2+) influx through the addition of extracellular CaCl(2) suppressed ajmalicine production in MJ-induced cultures. The highest ajmalicine production (4.75 mg/l) was observed when cells were treated with a low level of calcium (3 mM) combined with a high level of MJ (100 microM). In the presence of 3 mM CaCl(2) in the medium, the addition of Ca(2+) chelator EGTA (1, 2.5, and 5 mM) or Ca(2+) channel blocker verapamil (1, 10, and 50 muM) to MJ-induced (100 microM) cultures on day 6 also inhibited ajmalicine production at higher levels of the Ca(2+) inhibitors. Hence, ajmalicine production in MJ-induced C. roseus cultures depended on the intracellular Ca(2+) concentration and a low extracellular Ca(2+) concentration (3 mM) enhanced MJ-induced ajmalicine production.

Enhancement of ajmalicine production in Catharanthus roseus cell cultures with methyl jasmonate is dependent on timing and dosage of elicitation.

The optimum growth stage for enhancing ajmalicine production in Catharanthus roseus cultures with methyl jasmonate (MJ) was after 6 d growth. MJ added at 10 or 100 microm on day 6 gave a maximum ajmalicine production of 10.2 mg l(-1), a 300% increase over that of non-elicited cultures.

The effect of ajmalicine spiking and resin addition timing on the production of indole alkaloids from Catharanthus roseus cell cultures.

The potential for the feedback inhibition of indole alkaloid synthesis was investigated by spiking suspension cultures of Catharanthus roseus with 0, 9, or 18 mg/L ajmalicine on day 0. The production of ajmalicine, catharanthine, and serpentine were inhibited in a dose-dependent manner. The inhibition was transient as the exogenous ajmalicine was ultimately either metabolized in the medium or within the cell. The addition of neutral resin has previously been shown to enhance ajmalicine production. To minimize product inhibition and product metabolism, Amberlite XAD-7 resin was added to immobilized cultures of C. roseus starting on either day 0, 5, or 15, and fresh resin was exchanged for spent resin every 5 days. The addition of resin did not decrease the viability of the culture. Growth was reduced only in cultures with resin added on day 0. Alkaloid production was enhanced to different extents by the timing of resin addition, suggesting that feedback inhibition or product metabolism was present throughout the culture period. Ajmalicine recovery was nearly 100% when the resin was added initially either on day 0 or day 5. Ajmalicine recovery was reduced to 55% when the resin was added later in the culture period starting on day 15, presumably because of resin saturation or the inaccessibility of alkaloids trapped in the vacuole. Delaying the addition of XAD-7 resin until 5 days after the start of the culture resulted in the highest improvement in ajmalicine production, i.e approximately 70% and also resulted in the complete recovery of ajmalicine from the cell.