The truncated AaActin1 promoter is a candidate tool for metabolic engineering of artemisinin biosynthesis in Artemisia annua L.

Abstract

Malaria is a devastating parasitic disease with high levels of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Artemisinin, the active substance against malaria, is a sesquiterpenoid produced by Artemisia annua. To improve artemisinin content in the native A. annua plants, considerable efforts have been attempted, with genetic transformation serving as an effective strategy. Although, the most frequently-used cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S (CaMV35S) promoter has proved to be efficient in A. annua transgenic studies, it appears to show weak activity in peltate glandular secretory trichomes (GSTs) of A. annua plants. Here, we characterized the 1727 bp fragment upstream from the translation start codon (ATG) of AaActin1, however, found it was inactive in tobacco. After removal of the 5' intron, the truncated AaActin1 promoter (tpACT) showed 69% and 50% activity of CaMV35S promoter in transiently transformed tobacco and stably transformed A. annua, respectively. β-glucuronidase (GUS) staining analysis showed that the tpACT promoter was capable of directing the constant expression of a foreign gene in peltate GSTs of transgenic A. annua, representing higher activity than CaMV35S promoter. Collectively, our study provided a novel promoter available for metabolic engineering of artemisinin biosynthesis in A. annua.

• Authors: Yongpeng Li, Tiantian Chen, Hang Liu, Wei Qin, Xin Yan, Kuanyu Wu-Zhang, Bowen Peng, Yaojie Zhang, Xinghao Yao, Xueqing Fu, Ling Li, Kexuan Tang
• Journal: Journal of plant physiology (J Plant Physiol) Vol. 274 Pg. 153712 (Jul 2022) ISSN: 1618-1328 [Electronic] Germany
• PMID: 35644103 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2022 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Artemisinins

Topics

• Artemisia annua (genetics, metabolism)
• Artemisinins (metabolism)
• Metabolic Engineering
• Plants, Genetically Modified (genetics, metabolism)
• Promoter Regions, Genetic (genetics)
• Tobacco (genetics, metabolism)