Brilliant contributions from @geufloreslab.bsky.social

This discovery will lead to new ways to make useful pyridine molecules, and it may also allow us to relieve tobacco’s nicotine addition (i.e. removing the pathway) for future biotechnological applications.

We have resolved the steps of nicotine biosynthesis; discovering glucose processing enzymes mediating a cryptic glucosylation. This enabled one-pot biocatalytic cascades forming nicotine alkaloids, as well as pathway reconstruction in plants. Plus: new X-ray structures with substrate/products!

This is part of our collaboration with Prof Chanchan Liu's group in the Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine. We sequenced the genome of Agastache rugosa (Huo Xiang), a medicinal plant in the mint family. We found a gene cluster for monoterpenoids and tried to unpick how it might have evolved.