Abstract:
Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. ex DC is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Among its various active components, glycyrrhizic acid is believed to be the marker component. Squalene synthase (SQS) and
β-amyrin synthase (
β-AS) are key enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway of glycyrrhizic acid in
G. uralensis. To reveal the effects of co-expression of
SQS1 and
β-AS genes on this pathway, 7 yeast expression vectors harboring different
SQS1 variants and
β-AS were constructed and expressed in
Saccharomyces cerevisiae as fusion proteins. TLC and GC-MS results showed that co-expression of
SQS1 and
β-AS enhanced the accumulation of
β-amyrin. The effects of
SQS12 were more obvious than the other two
SQS1 variants. This study is significant for further investigations concerned with exploring the biosynthesis of glycyrrhizic acid
in vitro and strengthening the efficacy of
G. uralensis by means of increasing the content of glycyrrhizic acid.