Deconvoluting the sesquiterpenoid biochemical pathway of Artemisia annua

Emily Duckworth*, Vagner Benedito, and Michael Gutensohn
Division of Plant & Soil Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506

Presentation No.: 27

Assigned Category (Presentation Format): Agricultural & Environmental Sciences (Poster Presentations)

Student’s Major: Biochemistry

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that affected 229 million people worldwide in 2019, resulting in more than 400,000 deaths. The most effective antimalarial medicine is the natural product from the herb, Artemisia annua called artemisinin. Artemisinin is a sesquiterpene lactone compound, which structure is too complex to synthesize in vitro. Although bioreactor production of feasible with microorganisms, the product become too expensive for governments in many poor countries to purchase. Therefore, in planta production remains the most economically viable way to produce artemisinin. The overall goal of this research is to enhance terpenoid biosynthesis in A. annua and boost artemisinin accumulation in glandular trichomes of artemisia. We used Gas Chromatography – mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) to quantify and compare the abundance of mono- and sesquiterpenoids of 13 accessions of the A. annua germplasm collection at WVU. We have also started assessing volatile organic compound (VOC) headspace losses during artemisia cultivation in greenhouse conditions.

Funding:

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's SURE program (Rita Rio & Michelle Richards-Babb)