TITLE	Expression of tryptophan decarboxylase in chloroplasts of transgenic tobacco plants
AUTHOR	Qiu-Rong Li General Hospital in Nanjing Millitary District, Nanjing 210002, The People's Republic of China Stefano Di Fiore Botanical Institute of Rheinisch-Westfalisch Technische Hochschule Aachen, D-52074 Aachen, Germany Rainer Fischer Botanical Institute of Rheinisch-Westfalisch Technische Hochschule Aachen, D-52074 Aachen, Germany Miao Wang Institute of Applied Ecology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, The People's Republic of China
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ABSTRACT	Tryptophan decarboxylase (TDC) is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) from plants such as Catharanthus roseus. We transformed tobacco plants with tdc gene and expressed chloroplast-targeted versions of TDC protein. TDC was shown to be over-expressed in chloroplasts of tobacco plants by Western blot analysis and TDC enzymatic assay. The effective expression of TDC lead to accumulation of tryptamine in transgenic tobacco plants. T1 plants showed higher levels of TDC expression than T0 plants. In order to confirm that TDC was correctly targeted and expressed in chloroplasts, they were isolated from T1 transgenic tobacco plants, and the different fractions of purified chloroplasts were analyzed. Transgenic plants displayed the phenotype characteristic of necrotic syndromes, which was related to the accumulation of tryptamine.
KEYWORD	Chloroplast; Nicotiana tabacum; Terpenoid indole alkaloids; Tryptophan decarboxylase;
ARTICLE INFO	Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica, Volume 44 Number 3 July 2003, page 193-198, 6 pages
PUBLISHER	Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China