Functional characterization of the Marker enzyme UGT in the synthesis of Diterpene glycosides in stevia Rebaudiana bertoni

Abstract

Cellular and Molecular technologies especially recombinant newlineDNA technology have been established as an effective tool for enhancing the newlineproduction of secondary metabolites in plants for decades Stevia rebaudiana, a newlinemember of asteraceae family deserves a special attention in scientific community newlinedue to its twin focus: as a natural sweetener and as a therapeutic agent against newlinediabetes These two functional properties of Stevia rebaudiana have accelerated the newlinecommercial potential of this plant to a higher level than other plant system newlinePrecisely the biosynthesis of stevioside initiates from pyruvate by the enzymatic newlinemechanism of DXS enzyme and it ends in the formation of glycosides by newlineglycosylation using the marker enzyme Uridine diphosphate glycosyltransferases newline UGT Most of the studies so far conducted in the biosynthesis of steviosides have newlinebeen confined at the level of functional characterization of the marker enzymes at newlinebiochemical level The present study was undertaken to characterize the UGT gene newlineinvolved in the stevioside synthesis of Stevia rebaudiana at structural and newlinefunctional level newlineBased on the nature of the study the whole data can be categorized newlineinto three heads Analytical data of steviol, stevioside and rebaudioside for newlinequantifying the level of their accumulation in Stevia plants Biochemical data of newlineUGT enzyme for determining the functional activity Structural and functional newlinegenomics of UGT gene newline newline