Insilico assisted identification of peppery aroma compound ‘rotundone’ backbone genes from black pepper

Abstract

Rotundone, an oxygenated sesquiterpene compound, responsible for the peppery aroma. The importance of the rotundone in the flavor industry warrants search for the precursor genes in plants. We report in this study, the first on the identification of rotundone backbone genes viz., α-guaiene synthase & α-guaiene oxidase in black pepper. We identified the precursor genes of rotundone using berry transcriptome profiling. The metabolite profiling using head space mass spectrometry showed the presence of the direct precursor compounds for rotundone biosynthesis in black pepper berries. The identification of the genes & compounds of the guaiene skeleton is expected to help in bioprospecting of black pepper varieties & also in recombinant production of the aroma compound.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Identification of rotundone backbone genes & precursor compounds from Piper nigrum

Keywords:

• Piper nigrum
• alpha quaeine synthase
• alpha quaeine oxidase
• berry transcriptomemetabolite profiling

Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to Director, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi, India and Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Spice Research, Kozhikode, India for providing research facility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Authors are thankful to Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Govt. of India for providing financial assistance in the form of CABin grant (F. no. Agril. Edn.4-1/2013-A&P) as well as Advanced Super Computing Hub for Omics Knowledge in Agriculture (ASHOKA) facility at Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi.