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Ken-ichi Suzuki, Yasuyuki Yamada, Takashi Hashimoto, Expression of Atropa belladonna Putrescine N-Methyltransferase Gene in Root Pericycle, Plant and Cell Physiology, Volume 40, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 289–297, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pcp.a029540
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Abstract
The cDNAs encoding putrescine N-methyltransferase (PMT), which catalyzes the S-adenosylmethionine-dependent N-methylation of putrescine at the first committed step in the biosynthetic pathways of tropane alkaloids, were isolated from Atropa belladonna and Hyoscyamus niger. These PMTs, however, lacked the N-terminal tandem repeat arrays previously found in Nicotiana PMTs. AbPMT1 RNA was much more abundant in the root of A. belladonna than was AbPMT2 RNA. The 5′-flanking region of the AbPMT1 gene was fused to the β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene and transferred to A. belladonna. Histochemical analysis showed that GUS is expressed specifically in root pericycle cells and that the 0.3-kb 5′-upstream region was sufficient for pericycle-specific expression. Treatment of A. belladonna roots with methyl jasmonate did not up-regulate the expression of GUS or endogenous AbPMT genes. The regulation of tropane alkaloid biosynthesis is discussed and compared with that of nicotine biosynthesis.