Planta Med 2011; 77 - PB3
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1282257

Stable Over expression of codeinone reductase gene in transgenic Papaver somniferum plant

B Hosseini 1, H Hashemi 2, F Shahriari 3
  • 1Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, P.O.Box 165, Urmia, Iran.
  • 2National Institue for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB), P.O. Box: 14155–6343, Tehran, Iran
  • 3Department of Biotechnology and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, P.O.Box 91775–1163, Mashhad, Iran.

Papaver somniferum today is the commercial source of the narcotic analgesics morphine and codeine. By conversion of codeinone and morphinone to morphine, codeinone reductase is a key gene in metabolic engineering of isoquinoline alkaloids pathway. In this project, at first we optimised expression of gus gene in P. somniferum via Agrobacterium tumefaciens containing pBI121 plasmid. Encoding gene of COR enzyme was isolated using primers which designed on the base of gene sequence available on data banks (NCBI) for P. somniferum. This gene then cloned in expression vectors under controlled of CaMV35 promoter and transferred to plants by agro transformation. The result of evaluation showed the qualitative and quantitatives changes in metabolite production of transgenic and control plants.