Precursor feeding studies and molecular characterization of geraniol synthase establish the limiting role of geraniol in monoterpene indole alkaloid biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus leaves

•Geraniol, but not tryptophan, feeding enhanced the MIA content in C. roseus leaves.•CrGES expression is leaf and shoot specific and is induced by methyl jasmonate.•CrGES-vigs reduced the MIA content, which was restored upon geraniol feeding.•Overexpression of CrGES in C. roseus leaves increased the accumulation of MIAs.•Thus, GES expression and geraniol availability play important role in MIA formation.

The monoterpene indole alkaloids (MIAs) are generally derived from strictosidine, which is formed by condensation of the terpene moiety secologanin and the indole moiety tryptamine. There are conflicting reports on the limitation of either terpene or indole moiety in the production of MIAs in Catharanthus roseus cell cultures. Formation of geraniol by geraniol synthase (GES) is the first step in secologanin biosynthesis. In this study, feeding of C. roseus leaves with geraniol, but not tryptophan (precursor for tryptamine), increased the accumulation of the MIAs catharanthine and vindoline, indicating the limitation of geraniol in MIA biosynthesis. This was further validated by molecular and in planta characterization of C. roseus GES (CrGES). CrGES transcripts exhibited leaf and shoot specific expression and were induced by methyl jasmonate. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) of CrGES significantly reduced the MIA content, which was restored to near-WT levels upon geraniol feeding. Moreover, over-expression of CrGES in C. roseus leaves increased MIA content. Further, CrGES exhibited correlation with MIA levels in leaves of different C. roseus cultivars and has significantly lower expression relative to other pathway genes. These results demonstrated that the transcriptional regulation of CrGES and thus, the in planta geraniol availability plays crucial role in MIA biosynthesis.