FLAVONOID BIOSYNTHESIS

摘要

Disclosed are methods of influencing a flavonoid biosynthetic catalytic activity in a cell, which methods comprises modifying in the cell the activity of an enzyme having one or both of : i) flavone synthase activity; ii) flavanone 3 alpha -hydroxylase activity, plus optionally iii) flavanone 3 beta -hydroxylase activity; iv) flavonol synthase activity. Example enzymes include a flavonol synthase (Seq ID No 2) obtainable from Arabidopsis thaliana or variants thereof, which display novel activities and combinations of activities, and may use a variety of natural and non-naturally occurring substrates. Methods of the invention include the use of nucleic acids to express or down-regulate the enzyme in plant cells and plants. The method may be used to alter one or more characteristics in a plant e.g. colour, nutritional value and resistance to stresses. Also provided are novel uses of the enzyme, novel flavonoids obtainable using the enzyme and oligonucleotides.