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SummaryMembers of the Brassicaceae family accumulate speci®c sinapate esters, i.e. sinapoylcholine (sinapine), which is considered as a major antinutritive compound in seeds of important crop plants like Brassica napus, and sinapoylmalate, which is implicated in UV-B tolerance in leaves. We have studied the molecular regulation of the sinapate ester metabolism in B. napus, and we describe expression of genes, some properties of the encoded proteins and pro®les of the metabolites and enzyme activities. The cloned cDNAs encoding the key enzymes of sinapine biosynthesis, UDP-glucose (UDP-Glc):B. napus sinapate glucosyltransferase (BnSGT1) and sinapoylglucose:B. napus choline sinapoyltransferase (BnSCT), were functionally expressed. BnSGT1 belongs to a subgroup of plant GTs catalysing the formation of 1-O-hydroxycinnamoylb-D-glucoses. BnSCT is another member of serine carboxypeptidase-like (SCPL) family of acyltransferases.The B. napus genome contains at least two SGT and SCT genes, each derived from its progenitors B. oleracea and B. rapa. BnSGT1 and BnSCT activities are subjected to pronounced transcriptional regulation. BnSGT1 transcript level increases throughout early stages of seed development until the early cotyledonary stage, and stays constant in later stages. The highest level of BnSGT1 transcripts is reached in 2-day-old seedlings followed by a dramatic decrease. In contrast, expression of BnSCT is restricted to developing seeds. Regulation of gene expression at the transcript level seems to be responsible for changes of BnSGT1 and BnSCT activities during seed and seedling development of B. napus. Together with sinapine esterase (SCE) and sinapoylglucose:malate sinapoyltransferase (SMT), activities of BnSGT1 and BnSCT show a close correlation with the accumulation kinetics of the corresponding metabolites.

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SummaryThe seeds of most members of the Brassicaceae accumulate high amounts of sinapine (sinapoylcholine) that is rapidly hydrolyzed during early stages of seed germination. One of three isoforms of sinapine esterase activity (BnSCE3) has been isolated from Brassica napus seedlings and subjected to trypsin digestion and spectrometric sequencing. The peptide sequences were used to isolate BnSCE3 cDNA, which was shown to contain an open reading frame of 1170 bp encoding a protein of 389 amino acids, including a leader peptide of 25 amino acids. Sequence comparison identified the protein as the recently cloned BnLIP2, i.e. a GDSL lipaselike protein, which displays high sequence identity to a large number of corresponding plant proteins, including four related Arabidopsis lipases. The enzymes belong to the SGNH protein family, which use a catalytic triad of Ser-Asp-His, with serine as the nucleophile of the GDSL motif. The corresponding B. napus and Arabidopsis genes were heterologously expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves and proved to confer sinapine esterase activity. In addition to sinapine esterase activity, the native B. napus protein (BnSCE3/ BnLIP2) showed broad substrate specificity towards various other choline esters, including phosphatidylcholine. This exceptionally broad substrate specificity, which is common to a large number of other GDSL lipases in plants, hampers their functional analysis. However, the data presented here indicate a role for the GDSL lipase-like BnSCE3/BnLIP2 as a sinapine esterase in members of the Brassicaceae, catalyzing hydrolysis of sinapine during seed germination, leading, via 1-O-sinapoyl-b-glucose, to sinapoyl-L-malate in the seedlings.

Resveratrol is a phytoalexin produced in various plants like wine, peanut or pine in response to fungal infection or UV irradiation, but it is absent in members of the Brassicaceae. Moreover, resveratrol and its glucoside (piceid) are considered to have beneficial effects on human health, known to reduce heart disease, arteriosclerosis and cancer mortality. Therefore, the introduction of the gene encoding stilbene synthase for resveratrol production in rapeseed is a tempting approach to improve the quality of rapeseed products. The stilbene synthase gene isolated from grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) was cloned under control of the seed-specific napin promotor and introduced into rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) by Agrobacterium-mediated co-transformation together with a ds-RNA-interference construct deduced from the sequence of the key enzyme for sinapate ester biosynthesis, UDP-glucose:sinapate glucosyltransferase (BnSGT1), assuming that the suppression of the sinapate ester biosynthesis may increase the resveratrol production in seeds through the increased availability of the precursor 4-coumarate. Resveratrol glucoside (piceid) was produced at levels up to 361 microg/g in the seeds of the primary transformants. This value exceeded by far piceid amounts reported from B. napus expressing VST1 in the wild type sinapine background. There was no significant difference in other important agronomic traits, like oil, protein, fatty acid and glucosinolate content in comparison to the control plants. In the third seed generation, up to 616 microg/g piceid was found in the seeds of a homozygous T3-plant with a single transgene copy integrated. The sinapate ester content in this homozygous T3-plant was reduced from 7.43 to 2.40 mg/g. These results demonstrate how the creation of a novel metabolic sink could divert the synthesis towards the production of piceid rather than sinapate ester, thereby increasing the value of oilseed products.

SummaryCation-and S-adenosyl-L-methionine (AdoMet)-dependent plant natural product methyltransferases are referred to as CCoAOMTs because of their preferred substrate, caffeoyl coenzyme A (CCoA). The enzymes are encoded by a small family of genes, some of which with a proven role in lignin monomer biosynthesis. In Arabidopsis thaliana individual members of this gene family are temporally and spatially regulated. The gene At1g67990 is specifically expressed in flower buds, and is not detected in any other organ, such as roots, leaves or stems. Several lines of evidence indicate that the At1g67990 transcript is located in the flower buds, whereas the corresponding CCoAOMT-like protein, termed AtTSM1, is located exclusively in the tapetum of developing stamen. Flowers of At1g67990 RNAi-suppressed plants are characterized by a distinct flower chemotype with severely reduced levels of the N ¢,N ¢¢-bis-(5-hydroxyferuloyl)-N ¢¢¢-sinapoylspermidine compensated for by N 1 ,N 5 ,N 10 -tris-(5-hydroxyferuloyl)spermidine derivative, which is characterized by the lack of a single methyl group in the sinapoyl moiety. This severe change is consistent with the observed product profile of AtTSM1 for aromatic phenylpropanoids. Heterologous expression of the recombinant protein shows the highest activity towards a series of caffeic acid esters, but 5-hydroxyferuloyl spermidine conjugates are also accepted substrates. The in vitro substrate specificity and the in vivo RNAi-mediated suppression data of the corresponding gene suggest a role of this cation-dependent CCoAOMT-like protein in the stamen/pollen development of A. thaliana.

Brassicaceous plants are characterized by a pronounced metabolic flux toward sinapate, produced by the shikimate/phenylpropanoid pathway, which is converted into a broad spectrum of O-ester conjugates. The abundant sinapate esters in Brassica napus and Arabidopsis thaliana reflect a well-known metabolic network, including UDP-glucose:sinapate glucosyltransferase (SGT), sinapoylglucose:choline sinapoyltransferase (SCT), sinapoylglucose:L-malate sinapoyltransferase (SMT) and sinapoylcholine (sinapine) esterase (SCE). 1-O-Sinapoylglucose, produced by SGT during seed development, is converted to sinapine by SCT and hydrolyzed by SCE in germinating seeds. The released sinapate feeds via sinapoylglucose into the biosynthesis of sinapoylmalate in the seedlings catalyzed by SMT. Sinapoylmalate is involved in protecting the leaves against the deleterious effects of UV-B radiation. Sinapine might function as storage vehicle for ready supply of choline for phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis in young seedlings. The antinutritive character of sinapine and related sinapate esters hamper the use of the valuable seed protein of the oilseed crop B. napus for animal feed and human nutrition. Due to limited variation in seed sinapine content within the assortment of B. napus cultivars, low sinapine lines cannot be generated by conventional breeding giving rise to genetic engineering of sinapate ester metabolism as a promising means. In this article we review the progress made throughout the last decade in identification of genes involved in sinapate ester metabolism and characterization of the encoded enzymes. Based on gene structures and enzyme recruitment, evolution of sinapate ester metabolism is discussed. Strategies of targeted metabolic engineering, designed to generate low-sinapate ester lines of B. napus, are evaluated.

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