Identification and Functional Characterization of Monofunctional<i>ent</i>-Copalyl Diphosphate and<i>ent</i>-Kaurene Synthases in White Spruce Reveal Different Patterns for Diterpene Synthase Evolution for Primary and Secondary Metabolism in Gymnosperms
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Bibliographic record
Abstract
The biosynthesis of the tetracyclic diterpene ent-kaurene is a critical step in the general (primary) metabolism of gibberellin hormones. ent-Kaurene is formed by a two-step cyclization of geranylgeranyl diphosphate via the intermediate ent-copalyl diphosphate. In a lower land plant, the moss Physcomitrella patens, a single bifunctional diterpene synthase (diTPS) catalyzes both steps. In contrast, in angiosperms, the two consecutive cyclizations are catalyzed by two distinct monofunctional enzymes, ent-copalyl diphosphate synthase (CPS) and ent-kaurene synthase (KS). The enzyme, or enzymes, responsible for ent-kaurene biosynthesis in gymnosperms has been elusive. However, several bifunctional diTPS of specialized (secondary) metabolism have previously been characterized in gymnosperms, and all known diTPSs for resin acid biosynthesis in conifers are bifunctional. To further understand the evolution of ent-kaurene biosynthesis as well as the evolution of general and specialized diterpenoid metabolisms in gymnosperms, we set out to determine whether conifers use a single bifunctional diTPS or two monofunctional diTPSs in the ent-kaurene pathway. Using a combination of expressed sequence tag, full-length cDNA, genomic DNA, and targeted bacterial artificial chromosome sequencing, we identified two candidate CPS and KS genes from white spruce (Picea glauca) and their orthologs in Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis). Functional characterization of the recombinant enzymes established that ent-kaurene biosynthesis in white spruce is catalyzed by two monofunctional diTPSs, PgCPS and PgKS. Comparative analysis of gene structures and enzyme functions highlights the molecular evolution of these diTPSs as conserved between gymnosperms and angiosperms. In contrast, diTPSs for specialized metabolism have evolved differently in angiosperms and gymnosperms.
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Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it