Identification and functional analysis of sterol C-24methyltransferase in rice
ZHI Boyang；LEI Long；HUANG Sishu；LIU Xianqing；LUO Jie；
Phytosterols are a class of conserved natural compounds in plants that play a role in the growth and development of plants.They also have pharmacological functions such as lowering cholesterol and preventing cardiovascular diseases，which are of significant value to human health.Currently，the genes related to phytosterol synthesis in rice have not been well elucidated，which has hindered the development of high-phytosterol rice varieties.To further explore the genes associated with phytosterol synthesis in rice，the contents of three major phytosterols（campesterol，stigmasterol，andβ-sitosterol）in 533 rice varieties were detected accurately by using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.Based on the findings，the OsSMT1 gene in rice was located and cloned by using metabolomic genome-wide association analysis.Further in vitro recombinant protein enzyme activity assays and tobacco transient expression experiments confirmed that the protein encoded by this gene is capable of catalyzing the synthesis of the key intermediate 24-methylenecycloartanol in thebiosynthesis of phytosterols.
