Induction of resveratrol biosynthesis in Vitis amurensis cells by heterologous
expression of the Arabidopsis constitutively active, Ca2+-independent form of the AtCPK1
gene
In the present study, we established transgenic calli of Vitis amurensis that expressed a
constitutively active, Ca2+-independent form of the AtCPK1 gene (AtCPK1-Ca) and calli with a
non-active form of the gene. High-performance liquid chromatography with UV and highresolution
mass-spectrometry revealed that the predominant metabolites synthesized in our
transgenic callus cultures were trans-resveratrol di-glucoside, trans-piceid, trans-resveratrol,
trans-?-viniferin and trans-?-viniferin. The resveratrol content in the AtCPK1-Ca-transformed
callus cultures exceeded that in the control cultures up to 90-fold. Furthermore, the expression of
the AtCPK1-Ca gene caused cell growth activation, which led to the enhancement of resveratrol
production up to 137 times that of the control calli (69.7 mg L-1 vs. 0.51 mg L-1). Real-time PCR
analysis showed that AtCPK1-Ca overexpression caused increasing of the expression of the key
enzymes of phenylpropanoid pathway of resveratrol biosynthesis, 4-coumarate-CoA ligases.
Thus, heterologous expression of constitutively active CDPK genes can be used to bioengineer
plant cell cultures that produce stilbenes. Possible mechanisms for AtCPK1-mediated signal
transduction were proposed by the reconstruction of known protein-protein interactions within
CPK1-assotiated protein modules.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procbio.2016.12.026