ABSTRACT
The plastidial methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway provides 5-carbon precursors to the biosynthesis of isoprenoid (including artemisinin). 2-C-Methyl-D-erythritol-4-phosphate cytidylyltransferase (MCT) is the third enzyme of the MEP pathway, which catalyzes 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol-4-phosphate to form 4-(cytidine 5'-diphospho)-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol. The full-length MCT cDNA sequence (AaMCT) was cloned and characterized for the first time from Artemisia annua L. Analysis of tissue expression pattern revealed that AaMCT was highly expressed in glandular secretory trichome and poorly expressed in leaf, flower, root and stem. AaMCT was found to be a methyl jasmonate (MeJA)-induced genes, the expression of AaMCT was significantly increased after MeJA treatment. Subcellular localization indicated that the GFP protein fused with AaMCT was targeted specifically in chloroplasts. The transgenic plants of Arabidopsis thaliana with AaMCT overexpression exhibited a significantly increase in the content of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids, demonstrating that AaMCT kinase plays an influential role in isoprenoid biosynthesis.