Catalytic function, mechanism, and application of plant acyltransferases

Abstract

Acyltransferases (ATs) are important tailoring enzymes that contribute to the diversity of natural products. They catalyze the transfer of acyl groups to the skeleton, which improves the lipid solubility, stability, and pharmacological activity of natural compounds. In recent years, a number of ATs have been isolated from plants. In this review, we have summarized 141 biochemically characterized ATs during the period July 1997 to October 2020, including their function, heterologous expression systems, and catalytic mechanisms. Their catalytic performance and application potential has been further discussed.

Keywords:

• BAHD-AT
• catalytic application
• natural products
• plant acyltransferase
• SCPL-AT

Acknowledgements

The authors thank MSc student Haotian Wang and PhD student Huifei Su for critically reading the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Beijing Natural Science Foundation under Grant No. JQ18027; National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 81725023, 81891010/81891011, 81921001.