It happened again: convergent evolution of acylglucose specialized metabolism in black nightshade and wild tomato

Plants synthesize myriad phylogenetically-restricted specialized (aka secondary) metabolites with diverse structures. Metabolism of acylated sugar esters in epidermal glandular secreting trichomes across the Solanaceae (nightshade) family are ideal for investigating the mechanisms of evolutionary metabolic diversification. We developed methods to structurally analyze acylhexose mixtures by 2D NMR, which led to the insight that the Old World species black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) accumulates acylglucoses and acylinositols in the same tissue. Detailed in vitro biochemistry - cross validated by in vivo virus induced gene silencing - revealed two unique features of the four-step acylglucose biosynthetic pathway: a trichome-expressed, neofunctionalized invertase-like enzyme, SnASFF1, converts BAHD-produced acylsucroses to acylglucoses, which in turn are substrates for the first-reported acylglucose acyltransferase, SnAGAT1. This biosynthetic pathway evolved independently from that recently described in the wild tomato S. pennellii, reinforcing that acylsugar biosynthesis is evolutionarily dynamic with independent examples of primary metabolic enzyme cooption and additional variation in BAHD acyltransferases. TeaserAnalysis of plant protective surface hair chemistry revealed evolutionary mechanisms leading to metabolic innovation.