RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Function of the HYDROXYCINNAMOYL-CoA:SHIKIMATE HYDROXYCINNAMOYL TRANSFERASE is evolutionarily conserved in embryophytes
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.09.16.300285
DO 10.1101/2020.09.16.300285
A1 Lucie Kriegshauser
A1 Samuel Knosp
A1 Etienne Grienenberger
A1 Kanade Tatsumi
A1 Desirée D. Gütle
A1 Iben Sørensen
A1 Laurence Herrgott
A1 Julie Zumsteg
A1 Jocelyn K.C. Rose
A1 Ralf Reski
A1 Danièle Werck-Reichhart
A1 Hugues Renault
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/01/12/2020.09.16.300285.abstract
AB The plant phenylpropanoid pathway generates a major class of specialized metabolites and precursors of essential extracellular polymers that initially appeared upon plant terrestrialization. Despite its evolutionary significance, little is known about the complexity and function of this major metabolic pathway in extant bryophytes, which represent the non-vascular stage of embryophyte evolution. Here, we report that the HYDROXYCINNAMOYL-CoA:SHIKIMATE HYDROXYCINNAMOYL TRANSFERASE (HCT) gene that plays a critical function in the phenylpropanoid pathway during seed plant development, is functionally conserved in Physcomitrium patens (Physcomitrella), in the moss lineage of bryophytes. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that bonafide HCT function emerged in the progenitor of embryophytes. In vitro enzyme assays, moss phenolic pathway reconstitution in yeast and in planta gene inactivation coupled to targeted metabolic profiling, collectively indicate that P. patens HCT (PpHCT), similar to tracheophyte HCT orthologs, uses shikimate as a native acyl acceptor to produce a p-coumaroyl-5-O-shikimate intermediate. Phenotypic and metabolic analyses of loss-of-function mutants show that PpHCT is necessary for the production of caffeate derivatives, including previously reported caffeoyl-threonate esters, and for the formation of an intact cuticle. Deep conservation of HCT function in embryophytes is further suggested by the ability of HCT genes from P. patens and the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha to complement an Arabidopsis thaliana CRISPR/Cas9 hct mutant, and by the presence of phenolic esters of shikimate in representative species of the three bryophyte lineages.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.