BACKGROUND Hydroxycinnamates (HCs) are mainly produced in plants. Caffeic acid (CA), p-coumaric acid (PA), ferulic acid (FA) and sinapic acid (SA) are members of the HC family. The consumption of HC by human might prevent cardiovascular disease and some types of cancer. The solubility of HCs is increased through thioester conjugation to various compounds such as quinic acid, shikimic acid, mali...

l-Phe, a protein building block and precursor of numerous phenolic compounds, is synthesized from prephenate via an arogenate and/or phenylpyruvate route in which arogenate dehydratase (ADT) or prephenate dehydratase, respectively, plays a key role. Here, we used Petunia hybrida flowers, which are rich in Phe-derived volatiles, to determine the biosynthetic routes involved in Phe formation in p...

Shikimate is an important intermediate in the aromatic amino acid pathway, which can be used as a promising building block for the synthesis of biological compounds, such as neuraminidase inhibitor Oseltamivir (Tamiflu®). Compared with traditional methods, microbial production of shikimate has the advantages of environmental friendliness, low cost, feed stock renewability, and product selectivi...

Shikimate is a key intermediate in the synthesis of neuraminidase inhibitors. Compared with traditional methods, microbial production of shikimate has the advantages of environmental friendliness, low cost, feed stock renewability, and product selectivity and diversity. Despite these advantages, shikimate kinase I and II respectively encoded by aroK and aroL are inactivated in most shikimate mi...

Understanding the genetic basis of nitrogen and carbon metabolism will accelerate the development of plant varieties with high yield and improved nitrogen use efficiency. A robotized platform was used to measure the activities of 10 enzymes from carbon and nitrogen metabolism in the maize (Zea mays) intermated B73 × Mo17 mapping population, which provides almost a 4-fold increase in genetic map...

Mecillinam, a beta-lactam antibiotic specific to penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBP 2) in Escherichia coli, blocks cell wall elongation and, indirectly, cell division, but its lethality can be overcome by increased levels of ppGpp, the nucleotide effector of the stringent response. We have subjected an E. coli K-12 strain to random insertional mutagenesis with a mini-Tn10 element. One insertion,...

The tissue and subcellular distribution of prephenate aminotransferase, an enzyme of the shikimate pathway, was investigated in protoplasts from leaves of Sorghum bicolor. Activity was detected in purified epidermal and mesophyll protoplasts, and in bundle sheath strands. After fractionation of mesophyll and epidermal protoplasts by differential centrifugation, 92% of the total prephenate amino...

Green tea (Camellia sinensis, Cs) abundantly produces a diverse array of phenylpropanoid compounds benefiting human health. To date, the regulation of the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis in tea remains to be investigated. Here, we report a cDNA isolated from leaf tissues, which encodes a R2R3-MYB transcription factor. Amino acid sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicate that it is a me...