| Title: | Rapid Discovery and Functional Characterization of Terpene Synthases from Four Endophytic Xylariaceae |
| Author(s): | Wu W; Tran W; Taatjes CA; Alonso-Gutierrez J; Lee TS; Gladden JM; |
| Address: | "Biomass Science & Conversion Technologies, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California, United States of America. Combustion Chemistry Department, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California, United States of America. Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States of America. Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California, United States of America" |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0146983 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1932-6203 (Electronic) 1932-6203 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Endophytic fungi are ubiquitous plant endosymbionts that establish complex and poorly understood relationships with their host organisms. Many endophytic fungi are known to produce a wide spectrum of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with potential energy applications, which have been described as 'mycodiesel'. Many of these mycodiesel hydrocarbons are terpenes, a chemically diverse class of compounds produced by many plants, fungi, and bacteria. Due to their high energy densities, terpenes, such as pinene and bisabolene, are actively being investigated as potential 'drop-in' biofuels for replacing diesel and aviation fuel. In this study, we rapidly discovered and characterized 26 terpene synthases (TPSs) derived from four endophytic fungi known to produce mycodiesel hydrocarbons. The TPS genes were expressed in an E. coli strain harboring a heterologous mevalonate pathway designed to enhance terpene production, and their product profiles were determined using Solid Phase Micro-Extraction (SPME) and GC-MS. Out of the 26 TPS's profiled, 12 TPS's were functional, with the majority of them exhibiting both monoterpene and sesquiterpene synthase activity" |
| Keywords: | "Alkyl and Aryl Transferases/chemistry/*genetics Amino Acid Sequence Endophytes/*enzymology/*genetics Escherichia coli/metabolism Genes, Fungal Molecular Sequence Data Multigene Family Phylogeny Sequence Alignment Terminology as Topic Terpenes/chemistry/me;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineWu, Weihua Tran, William Taatjes, Craig A Alonso-Gutierrez, Jorge Lee, Taek Soon Gladden, John M eng Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. 2016/02/18 PLoS One. 2016 Feb 17; 11(2):e0146983. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146983. eCollection 2016" |
