Plant-specific type III polyketide synthases superfamily: crystal structures and functions / 生物工程学报

Plant type III polyketide synthase (PKS) generates backbones of a variety of plant secondary metabolites with diverse functions, and has long been models to elucidate the relationship between the three-dimensional structure and function. More than 80 type IIII PKS crystal structures with different functions have been reported in Protein Data Bank, including the crystal structures of the well-studied Chalcone Synthase of plant type III PKS, as well as the 6 other kinds of PKSs in the family, which are critical for understanding the structural basis for diverse starter molecule selectivity, polyketide chain length and the cyclization reaction. Structure-based analysis and site-directed mutagenesis are foundation for the investigation of enzyme engineering, genetic and metabolic engineering. This review summarized 7 plant-specific type III PKS in the aspects of their crystal structures and functions.

Plant-specific type III polyketide synthase superfamily: gene structure, function and metabolites / 生物工程学报

Plant-specific type III polyketide synthase (PKS) produces a variety of plant secondary metabolites with notable structural diversity and biological activity. So far 14 plant-specific type III PKS have been identified according to their enzymatic products, and the corresponding genes have been cloned and characterized. The differences among the various PKS are mainly in their substrate specificities, the number of their condensation reactions, and the type of ring closure of their products. However, numerous studies have revealed the common features among the plant-specific type III PKS, which include sequence homology, similar gene structure, conserved amino acid residues in the reaction center, enzymatic characteristics and reaction mechanism. We briefly reviewed 14 plant-specific type III PKS to better understand genetic and metabolic engineering of plant-specific type III PKS.