ArticleNature communications2019
Repeated evolution of cytochrome P450-mediated spiroketal steroid biosynthesis in plants.
Article in Nature communications, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 94 papers.
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Who cites it
94 citing papers in PubMed, 195 citations in OpenAlex.
- Functional characterization of four glycosyltransferases for biosynthesis of steroidal saponins in medicinal plantSynthetic and systems biotechnology · 2026Article
- Identification and catalytic optimization of pinene oxidases in paeoniflorin biosynthetic pathway.Plant physiology · 2026Article
- Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis Provides Insights into PSK-α-Mediated Regulation of Diosgenin Biosynthesis inMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Biosynthetic mechanism and ecological function of chirality in Solanum steroidal alkaloids.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A tri-target in silico analysis of Testolift: a nutraceutical formulation targeting aromatase, myostatin, and prolyl hydroxylase-2 in testosterone regulation and muscle performance.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Dynamic diversification of lignan metabolism in sesame via coordinated oxygenation and glucosylation across germination.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- DcMYB5 transcription factor regulates the biosynthesis of diosgenin by directly repressing CYP90B gene expression in Dioscorea composita.Plant cell reports · 2026Article
- Convergence and parallelism in the evolution of plant metabolism.Journal of integrative plant biology · 2026Review
- A haplotype-resolved chromosome-level genome assembly of autotetraploid Chinese yam (Horticulture research · 2026Article
- Integrated metabolomics and transcriptomics investigate the bulb-specific biosynthesis of medicinal steroidal alkaloids in Fritillaria taipaiensis.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- Plastid 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases mediate stereoselective C14β-hydroxylation in cardenolide biosynthesis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- A review of glycosylation diversity and biosynthetic advances of steroidal saponins inFrontiers in plant science · 2026Review
- Identification and engineering of a UDP-rhamnosyltransferase fromBiodesign research · 2025Article
- Elucidation of the biosynthetic pathways of timosaponins reveals the antifungal mechanisms in Anemarrhena asphodeloides.Journal of advanced research · 2025Article
- Inference of Cytochrome P450 Evolutionary History Using Structural and Physicochemical Metrics.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Transcriptome and metabolome reveal the accumulation of secondary metabolites in different species of Dioscorea.BMC plant biology · 2025Article
- The clarification of two hydroxylation steps in the conversion of cholesterol to OSW-1 in Ornithogalum saundersiae.Plant biotechnology journal · 2025Article
- Role of diosgenin in gastrointestinal cancers: recent trends and future perspectives.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2025Review
- Phylogenomics and metabolic engineering reveal a conserved gene cluster in Solanaceae plants for withanolide biosynthesis.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Decoding and reprogramming of the biosynthetic networks of mushroom-derived bioactive type II ganoderic acids in yeast.Cell discovery · 2025Article
34 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Diosgenin is a spiroketal steroidal natural product extracted from plants and used as the single most important precursor for the world steroid hormone industry. The sporadic occurrences of diosgenin in distantly related plants imply possible independent biosynthetic origins. The characteristic 5,6-spiroketal moiety in diosgenin is reminiscent of the spiroketal moiety present in anthelmintic avermectins isolated from actinomycete bacteria. How plants gained the ability to biosynthesize spiroketal natural products is unknown. Here, we report the diosgenin-biosynthetic pathways in himalayan paris (Paris polyphylla), a monocot medicinal plant with hemostatic and antibacterial properties, and fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), an eudicot culinary herb plant commonly used as a galactagogue. Both plants have independently recruited pairs of cytochromes P450 that catalyze oxidative 5,6-spiroketalization of cholesterol to produce diosgenin, with evolutionary progenitors traced to conserved phytohormone metabolism. This study paves the way for engineering the production of diosgenin and derived analogs in heterologous hosts.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.