Researchers have found a gene that is involved in the morphine-producing pathway of poppies.
The finding completes the biosynthetic pathway to morphine, allowing investigations of microbial-based approaches to developing opiate-based pain relievers.
By studying mutations in the poppy plant Papaver somniferum, Thilo Winzer and his colleagues at the University of York, England, discovered that the STORR enzyme, expressed by a gene of the same name, converts (S)-reticuline to an amine, known as 1,2-dehydroreticuline, and that intermediate substrate is then converted to (R)-reticuline. The STORR enzyme contains a cytochrome P450 module, which facilitates the first step of the process, along with oxidoreductase modules that facilitate the second step, according to the researchers, whose collaborators include researchers at GlaxoSmithKline in Boronia, VIC, Australia.
The discovery is one more step in recent efforts to engineer the morphine biosynthesis pathway in yeast, paving the way for cheaper ways to produce painkillers that don’t rely on cultivating poppy fields.
Click here to read the study at Science.