CHIMERIC FUSICOCCANE SYNTHASE AND GENE OF THE SAME

摘要

It is intended to provide a novel enzyme and its gene which can be effectively used in the large-scale production of fusicocca-2,10(14)-diene that is useful as a material for producing cotylenin, 12-deoxyfusicoccins and derivatives thereof having great potential as an anticancer agent. It is also intended to provide a method of producing fusicocca-2,10(14)-diene by using the above-described enzyme or a vector to be used in producing the enzyme and a transformant. A chimeric fusicoccane synthase which is characterized by having a terpene cyclase domain comprising the amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO:1 or a sequence functional equivalent thereto in the N-terminal region and a prenyl transferase domain comprising the amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO:2 or a sequence functional equivalent thereto in the C-terminal region. By culturing a transformant which carries a gene encoding the above-described enzyme, the enzyme and fusicocca-2,10(14)-diene are produced.