Piperine Biosythesis in Black Pepper

The experiments were performed to elucidate the enigmatic enzymatic formation of the pungent principle, piperine, from black pepper (Piper nigrum L.), the world´s most popular spice. Based a differential RNA-Seq approach including immature fruits, flowers, and leaves, the gene encoding piperine synthase, encoding a BAHD-type acyltransferase and several other candidate genes encoding various enzymatic functions in the biosynthetic pathway were identified. Recombinant piperine synthase and additional promiscuous piperamide synthases were used to facilitate the microbial production of a broad range of medicinally relevant piperamides. Subsequent investigations will also include the identification of enzymatic steps in the phenylpropanoid pathway and the amino acid derived biosynthesis of piperidine Based on the assumption that piperine encoding genes are highly expressed shortly before the slope of piperine accumulation reaches its maximum, RNA from greenhouse grown black pepper plants was extracted from young fruits at two different stages of development, flowers, and leaves were harvested for a differential RNA-Seq approach. Candidate transcripts associated with piperine biosynthesis were identified by comparative transcript abundance and sequence annotation tools.