ArticlePlanta2021
Defining the role of a caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase from Azadirachta indica fruits in the biosynthesis of ferulic acid through heterologous over-expression in Ocimum species and Withania somnifera.
Article in Planta, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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10 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- A neprilysin effector from the pinewood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus targets pine caffeic acid O-methyltransferase and inhibits lignin biosynthesis.Pest management science · 2026Article
- Variations in carbon flux allocation among cassava (Manihot esculenta) cultivars arise from balanced competition between starch accumulation and structural component development.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Biotransformation of Phenolic Acids in Foods: Pathways, Key Enzymes, and Technological Applications.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Genome-wide identification and expression profiling of bHLH transcription factors associated with ferulic acid biosynthesis inFrontiers in plant science · 2025Article
- Transcriptome Analysis Reveals the Molecular Mechanisms of Carrot Adaptation to Alternaria Leaf Blight.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Integrated metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses ofFrontiers in plant science · 2024Article
- Lignin and Its Pathway-Associated Phytoalexins Modulate Plant Defense against Fungi.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Review
- Increasing Heavy Metal Tolerance by the Exogenous Application of Organic Acids.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Comparative Molecular Mechanisms of Biosynthesis of Naringenin and Related Chalcones in Actinobacteria and Plants: Relevance for the Obtention of Potent Bioactive Metabolites.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
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5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
MAIN
conclusionThe recombinant caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase gene has been cloned and characterized from Neem. The gene is involved in ferulic acid biosynthesis, a key intermediate component of lignin biosynthesis. Azadirachta indica (Neem) is a highly reputed traditional medicinal plant and is phytochemically well-known for its limonoids. Besides limonoids, phenolics are also distinctively present, which add more medicinal attributes to Neem. Caffeic acid is one of such phenolic compound and it can be converted enzymatically into another bioactive phytomolecule, ferulic acid. This conversion requires transfer of a methyl group from a donor to caffeic acid under the catalytic action of an appropriate methyltransferase. In this study, caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase gene from Neem (NCOMT) fruits has been isolated and heterologously expressed in E. coli. The recombinant NCOMT enzyme was purified, which exhibited efficient catalytic conversion of caffeic acid into ferulic acid, a highly potential pharmaceutical compound. The purified recombinant enzyme was physico-kinetically characterized for its catalysis. The analysis of tissue-wide expression of NCOMT gene revealed interesting pattern of transcript abundance reflecting its role in the development of fruit tissues. Further, NCOMT was heterologously overexpressed in Withania somnifera and Ocimum species, to analyze its role in ferulic acid biosynthesis in planta. Thus, the study provides insight for the endogenous role of NCOMT in ferulic acid biosynthesis en route to lignin, an important structural component. To the best of our knowledge, NCOMT pertains to be the first enzyme of the secondary metabolism that has been purified and kinetically characterized from Neem. This study may also have important prospects of applications as the observation on heterologous expression of NCOMT showed its involvement in the maintenance of the in vivo pool of ferulic acid in the plants. Thus, the study involving NCOMT opens up new dimensions of metabolic engineering approaches for the biosynthesis of potential therapeutically important phytomolecules in heterologous systems.
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