Novel carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase catalyzes the first dedicated step in saffron crocin biosynthesis

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1404629111
• Publication Date: 2014-08-06T05:53:15Z
• Authors: Sarah Frusciante; Gianfranco Diretto; Mark Bruno; Paola Ferrante; Marco Pietrella; Alfonso Prado-Cab...; Angela Rubio-Moraga; Peter Beyer; Lourdes Gomez-Gomez; Salim Al-Babili; Giovanni Giuliano
• Keywords: Crocetin; Safranal; Dioxygenase

Significance Saffron is a triploid, sterile species whose red stigmas constitute the most expensive spice on Earth. The color, taste, and aroma of are owed to crocus-specific apocarotenoid accumulation crocetin/crocins, picrocrocin, safranal. Through deep transcriptome analysis, we identified novel carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase (CCD) expression profile parallels production crocetin. Using in bacterio , vitro, planta functional assays, demonstrate that CCD2 catalyzing first dedicated step saffron crocetin biosynthesis starting from zeaxanthin.