Functional Analysis of Terpene Synthases in Arabidopsis Thaliana using the Surrogate Splicing Method

Terpene synthases are responsible for a key biosynthetic step in the formation of mono-, sesqui- and di-terpenes produced by plants that are valuable in medicine, in food, and in the cosmetic industry. The overall objective of the current project is to exploit the natural diversity of terpene synthases to obtain a more detailed understanding of the molecular and structural basis for how terpene synthases function, so enabling the informed development of strategies for producing important value-added terpenoids at high levels both in vivo and in vitro. Two putative terpene synthase genes of Arabidopsis thaliana will be cloned and expressed, the encoded enzymes characterized, and reaction products generated by these enzymes investigated by GC-MS. The identification of additional terpene synthases will contribute to our understanding of the structure-function relationships within terpene synthase family of proteins and should provide the means for developing novel synthase using the tools of protein engineering