Production of prenylated flavonoids in tomato fruits expressing a prenyltransferase gene from Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2).

Flavonoids are natural compounds found in many plants, including the important fruit crop, tomato. Prenylated flavonoids consist of a large group of compounds, which often exhibit antitumour, antibacterial and/or anti-androgen activities. In this study, we engineered the biosynthesis of prenylated flavonoids using a Streptomyces prenyltransferase HypSc (SCO7190) possessing broad-range substrate specificity, in tomato as a host plant. LC/MS/MS analysis demonstrated the generation of 3′-dimethylallyl naringenin in tomato fruits when recombinant HypSc protein was targeted to the plastids, whereas the recombinant protein hardly produced this compound in vitro. This is the first report confirming the accumulation of a prenylated flavonoid using a bacterial prenyltransferase in transgenic plants, and our results suggest that the product specificities of prenyltransferases can be significantly influenced by the host plant.