Unser 10. Leibniz Plant Biochemistry Symposium am 7. und 8. Mai war ein großer Erfolg. Thematisch ging es in diesem Jahr um neue Methoden und Forschungsansätze der Naturstoffchemie. Die exzellenten Vorträge über Wirkstoffe…
Omanische Heilpflanze im Fokus der Phytochemie IPB-Wissenschaftler und Partner aus Dhofar haben jüngst die omanische Heilpflanze Terminalia dhofarica unter die phytochemische Lupe genommen. Die Pflanze ist reich an…
Geschmack ist vorhersagbar: Mit FlavorMiner. FlavorMiner heißt das Tool, das IPB-Chemiker und Partner aus Kolumbien jüngst entwickelt haben. Das Programm kann, basierend auf maschinellem Lernen (KI), anhand der…
Capsaicin, produced by diverse Capsicum species, is among the world’s most popular spices and of considerable pharmaceutical relevance. Although the capsaicinoid biosynthetic pathway has been investigated for decades, several biosynthetic steps have remained partly hypothetical. Genetic evidence suggested that the decisive capsaicin synthase is encoded by the Pun1 locus. Yet, the genetic evidence of the Pun1 locus was never corroborated by functionally active capsaicin synthase that presumably catalyzes an amide bond formation between trans 8-methyl-6-nonenoyl-CoA derived from branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis and vanilloylamine derived from the phenylpropanoid pathway. In this report, we demonstrate the enzymatic activity of a recombinant capsaicin synthase encoded by Pun1, functionally expressed in Escherichia coli, and provide information on its substrate specificity and catalytic properties. Recombinant capsaicin synthase is specific for selected aliphatic CoA-esters and highly specific for vanilloylamine. Partly purified from E. coli, the recombinant active enzyme is a monomeric protein of 51 kDa that is independent of additional co-factors or associated proteins, as previously proposed. These data can now be used to design capsaicin synthase variants with different properties and alternative substrate preferences.