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Published on March 14, 2008; 10.1104/pp.108.116699

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Received February 9, 2008
Accepted March 11, 2008

Biosynthesis and Accumulation of Ergoline Alkaloids in a Mutualistic Association between Ipomoea asarifolia (Convolvulaceae) and a Clavicipitalean Fungus

Anne Markert , Nicola Steffan , Kerstin Ploss , Sabine Hellwig , Ulrike Steiner , Christel Drewke , Shu-Ming Li , Wilhelm Boland , and Eckhard Leistner *

Institut fur Pharmazeutische Biologie, D-53115 Bonn, Germany; Institut fur Pharmazeutische Biologie und Biotechnologie, D-40225 Duesseldorf, Germany; Institut fur Nutzpflanzenwissenschaften und Resourcenschutz, D-53115 Bonn, Germany; Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, D- 07745 Jena, Germany

* Corresponding author; email: eleistner{at}uni-bonn.de.

Ergoline alkaloids occur in taxonomically unrelated taxa such as fungi belonging to the phylum Ascomycetes and higher plants of the family Convolvulaceae. The disjointed occurrence can be explained by the observation that plant associated epibiotic clavicipitalean fungi capable of synthesizing ergoline alkaloids colonize the adaxial leaf surface of certain Convolvulaceae plant species. The fungi are seed transmitted. Their capacity to synthesize ergoline alkaloids depends on the presence of an intact differentiated host plant e.g., Ipomoea asarifolia or Turbina corymbosa (Convolvulaceae). We here present independent proof that these fungi are equipped with genetic material responsible for ergoline alkaloid biosynthesis. The gene (dmaW) for the determinant step in ergoline alkaloid biosynthesis was shown to be part of a cluster involved in ergoline alkaloid formation. The dmaW gene was overexpressed in yeast, the encoded DmaW protein purified to homogeneity and characterized. Neither the gene nor the biosynthetic capacity, however, were detectable in the intact I. asarifolia or the taxonomically related T. corymbosa host plants.

Both plants, however, contained the ergoline alkaloids almost exclusively while alkaloids are not detectable in the associated epibiotic fungi. This indicates that a transport system may exist translocating the alkaloids from the epibiotic fungus into the plant. The association between the fungus and the plant very likely is a symbiotum in which ergoline alkaloids play an essential role.




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