Phytosterol Profiles, Genomes and Enzymes - An Overview.

Sylvain Darnet,Quentin Chevalier,Hubert Schaller,Aurélien Blary

doi:10.3389/fpls.2021.665206

Abstract

The remarkable diversity of sterol biosynthetic capacities described in living organisms is enriched at a fast pace by a growing number of sequenced genomes. Whereas analytical chemistry has produced a wealth of sterol profiles of species in diverse taxonomic groups including seed and non-seed plants, algae, phytoplanktonic species and other unicellular eukaryotes, functional assays and validation of candidate genes unveils new enzymes and new pathways besides canonical biosynthetic schemes. An overview of the current landscape of sterol pathways in the tree of life is tentatively assembled in a series of sterolotypes that encompass major groups and provides also peculiar features of sterol profiles in bacteria, fungi, plants, and algae.

Highlights

Sterols are mandatory components of eukaryotic life as building blocks of cellular membranes and as bioactive signals both functions having specific molecular structural requirements (Schaller, 2010; Darnet and Schaller, 2019)
The access to novel sequenced genomes and the increasing quality of their expert annotation and curation is opening the search for interesting new genes, pathways and for a more exhaustive view upon the sterol biosynthetic capacities and distribution in eukaryotes (Figure 7)
The integration of a considerable body of published data on the sterol composition of a multitude of species – sometimes in ancient and overlooked papers and repositories – with genome sequencing led us to tentatively visualize major taxonomic groups with sterolotypes, which may evolve as far as more information will be produced from genome surveys (Wong, 2019), especially those genomes coming from the oceans (Carradec et al, 2018; Canals et al, 2020)

Summary

Introduction

Sterols are mandatory components of eukaryotic life as building blocks of cellular membranes and as bioactive signals both functions having specific molecular structural requirements (Schaller, 2010; Darnet and Schaller, 2019). Sterol Pathways (cycloartenol, lanosterol) to their conversion into cholesterol, ergosterol and phytosterols and the biological significance of those have been assembled in a global picture proposed for mammal, invertebrate, fungi, and plant model species (Nes, 2011; Brown et al, 2018; Moreau et al, 2018).

Results

Conclusion