The Yield of Essential Oils in Melaleuca alternifolia (Myrtaceae) Is Regulated through Transcript Abundance of Genes in the MEP Pathway

Hamish Webb, Robert Lanfear, John Hamill, William J. Foley, Carsten Külheim*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    31 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Medicinal tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) leaves contain large amounts of an essential oil, dominated by monoterpenes. Several enzymes of the chloroplastic methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway are hypothesised to act as bottlenecks to the production of monoterpenes. We investigated, whether transcript abundance of genes encoding for enzymes of the MEP pathway were correlated with foliar terpenes in M. alternifolia using a population of 48 individuals that ranged in their oil concentration from 39 -122 mg.g DM-1. Our study shows that most genes in the MEP pathway are co-regulated and that the expression of multiple genes within the MEP pathway is correlated with oil yield. Using multiple regression analysis, variation in expression of MEP pathway genes explained 87% of variation in foliar monoterpene concentrations. The data also suggest that sesquiterpenes in M. alternifolia are synthesised, at least in part, from isopentenyl pyrophosphate originating from the plastid via the MEP pathway.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article numbere60631
    JournalPLoS ONE
    Volume8
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 27 Mar 2013

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