Tuscan Varieties of Sweet Cherry Are Rich Sources of Ursolic and Oleanolic Acid: Protein Modeling Coupled to Targeted Gene Expression and Metabolite Analyses.
Roberto BerniMubasher Zahir HoqueSylvain LegayGiampiero CaiKhawar Sohail SiddiquiJean-Francois HausmanChristelle M AndreGea GuerrieroPublished in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) (2019)
The potential of six ancient Tuscan sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) varieties as a source of health-promoting pentacyclic triterpenes is here evaluated by means of a targeted gene expression and metabolite analysis. By using a sequence homology criterion, we identify five oxidosqualene cyclase genes (OSCs) and three cytochrome P450s (CYP85s) that are putatively involved in the triterpene production pathway in sweet cherries. We performed 3D structure prediction and induced-fit docking using cation intermediates and reaction products for some OSCs to predict their function. We show that the Tuscan varieties have different amounts of ursolic and oleanolic acids and that these variations are related to different gene expression profiles. This study stresses the interest of valorizing ancient fruits as alternative sources of functional molecules with nutraceutical value. It also provides information on sweet cherry triterpene biosynthetic genes, which could be the object of follow-up functional studies.
Keyphrases
- gene expression
- genome wide
- dna methylation
- genome wide identification
- drinking water
- cancer therapy
- protein protein
- healthcare
- public health
- genome wide analysis
- working memory
- bioinformatics analysis
- high glucose
- mental health
- human health
- molecular dynamics
- copy number
- molecular dynamics simulations
- transcription factor
- diabetic rats
- binding protein
- climate change
- health promotion