Abstract
Plants synthesize a great variety of isoprenoid products that are required not only for normal growth and development but also for their adaptive responses to environmental challenges. However, despite the remarkable diversity in the structure and function of plant isoprenoids, they all originate from a single metabolic precursor, mevalonic acid. The synthesis of mevalonic acid is catalysed by the enzyme, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMG- CoA reductase). The analysis of the amino acid sequence of HMG-CoA reductase from Artemisia annua L. plant showed that it belongs to class I HMG-CoA reductase family. The three dimensional structure of HMG-CoA reductase of Artemisia annua has been generated from amino acid sequence using homology modelling with backbone structure of human HMG-CoA reductase as template. The model was generated using the SWISS MODEL SERVER. The generated 3-D structure of HMG-CoA reductase was evaluated at various web interfaced servers to checks the stereo interfaced quality of the structure in terms of bonds, bond angles, dihedral angles and non-bonded atom-atom distances, structural as well as functional domains etc. The generated model was visualized using the RASMOL. Structural analysis of HMG-CoA reductase from Artemisia annua L. plant hypothesize that the N and C-terminals are positioned in cytosol by the two membrane spanning helices and the C-terminals domain shows similarity to the human HMG-CoA reductase enzyme indicating that they both had potential catalytic similarities.
Highlights
With over 30,000 isoprenoids being structurally identified, most of them are of plant origin and represent the largest family of natural compounds [10]
Research on artemisinin metabolic engineering showed that overexpressing a key enzyme in isopeprenoid biosynthesis could elevate the level of the sesquiterpene final product [15]
Mevalonate is utilized as precursor in the synthesis of various terpenes including artemisinin we hypothesized that artemisinin biosynthesis and its accumulation in A. annua L. plants can be increased through modulation of HMGR activity and MVA level [18].The present study has been conducted to understand and elucidate the 3-D structure of HMG CoA reductase of A. annua by homology modeling
Summary
With over 30,000 isoprenoids being structurally identified, most of them are of plant origin and represent the largest family of natural compounds [10]. They function in respiration, signal transduction, cell division, membrane architecture, photosynthesis, and growth regulation [30]. They play an important role in the exchange of signals between plants and their environment [1] or in defense against pathogens. The key enzyme of the classical mevalonate pathway in plants is 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutarylcoenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase (HMGR, EC 1.1.1.34). Knowledge gained from its 3-D structure with functionally important domains and structural features is essential for establishing importance and regulatory mechanism at molecular level as well to target the protein metabolic engineering to enhance biosynthesis of artemisinin
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