Nature Communications (Apr 2022)

Deletion and tandem duplications of biosynthetic genes drive the diversity of triterpenoids in Aralia elata

  • Yu Wang,
  • He Zhang,
  • Hyok Chol Ri,
  • Zeyu An,
  • Xin Wang,
  • Jia-Nan Zhou,
  • Dongran Zheng,
  • Hao Wu,
  • Pengchao Wang,
  • Jianfei Yang,
  • Ding-Kun Liu,
  • Diyang Zhang,
  • Wen-Chieh Tsai,
  • Zheyong Xue,
  • Zhichao Xu,
  • Peng Zhang,
  • Zhong-Jian Liu,
  • Hailong Shen,
  • Yuhua Li

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29908-y
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 1
pp. 1 – 16

Abstract

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Unlike Panax species, which can produce dammarane-type saponins, Aralia elata can only synthesize oleananetype saponins. Here, the authors reveal that the loss of the dammaranediol synthase-encoding gene and tandem duplication of triterpene biosynthetic genes drive structural divergences of saponins between the two genera.