Publications by authors named "Olca Titiz"
Background: Natural products are an important source of drugs and other commercially interesting compounds, however their isolation and production is often difficult. Metabolic engineering, mainly in bacteria and yeast, has sought to circumvent some of the associated problems but also this approach is impeded by technical limitations. Here we describe a novel strategy for production of diverse natural products, comprising the expression of an unprecedented large number of biosynthetic genes in a heterologous host.
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- Vitamin B6 is crucial for plant metabolism and acts as an antioxidant, but its role in plant growth and development is not well understood.
- Recent discoveries have identified the PDX1 protein as essential for the biosynthesis of vitamin B6 in plants, with two functional homologs, PDX1.1 and PDX1.3, found in *Arabidopsis thaliana*.
- Expression studies show that while both genes are important for vitamin B6 synthesis, PDX1.3 is more abundant and necessary, with mutations in both leading to embryo lethality and varying impacts on plant development and stress resilience.
Vitamin B6 is an essential metabolite in all organisms. It can act as a coenzyme for numerous metabolic enzymes and has recently been shown to be a potent antioxidant. Plants and microorganisms have a de novo biosynthetic pathway for vitamin B6, but animals must obtain it from dietary sources.
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