Salutaridinol 7-0-Acetyltransferase and Derivatives Thereof

Abstract

This invention provides a protein comprising consecutive amino acids, the amino acid sequence of which is illustrated in FIG. 8 (SEQ. ID No. 14) or, a fragment thereof having at least 15 amino acids, or a variant thereof, the sequence of which has at least 70% identity with the amino acid sequence of FIG. 8 (SEQ. ID No. 14) over a length of at least 400 amino acids. This invention further provides a peptide comprising a fragment of salutaridinol 7-O-acetyltransferase protein of at least 6 consecutive amino acids which is not present in other plant acetyltransferases as illustrated in FIG. 2 (SEQ. IDs No. 8 to 12). This invention further provides a nucleic acid molecule comprising consecutive nucleotides (i) the nucleic acid sequence of which is illustrated in FIG. 9 (SEQ. ID No. 13) or FIG. 10 (SEQ. ID No. 15), or (ii) a fragment thereof having a length of at least 45 nucleotides, or (iii) a variant thereof, the sequence of which has at least 70% identity with the sequence of FIG. 9 (SEQ. ID No. 13) or FIG. 10 (SEQ. ID No. 15) over a length of at least 1200 bases, or a sequence complementary to (i), (ii) or (iii), or the RNA equivalent of any of (i), (ii), or (iii). This invention further provides a nucleic acid molecule comprising a fragment of a salutaridinol 7-O-acetyltransferase gene, at least 18 consecutive nucleotides unique to the salutaridinol 7-O-acetyltransferase gene and being chosen from the 5′ or 3′ untranslated regions of the sequence illustrated in FIG. 9 (SEQ. ID No. 13), or a sequence which is complementary thereto. This invention further provides a method for producing pentacyclic morphinan alkaloids comprising (i) introducing a nucleic acid molecule encoding salutaridinol 7-O-acetyltransferase into a plant cell capable of expressing salutaridinol and/or salutaridine and/or (R)-reticuline, (ii) propagating said plant cell to produce a multiplicity of morphinan-producing cells, and (iii) recovering said morphinan(s) from said multiplicity of cells. This invention further provides a method for the production of thebaine comprising the steps of (i) contacting in vitro a protein having salutaridinol 7-O-acetyltransferase activity with salutaridinol and acetyl co-enzyme A at pH 8 to 9, and (ii) recovering the thebaine thus produced.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.