Production of ginsenoside aglycone (protopanaxatriol) and male sterility of transgenic tobacco co-overexpressing three Panax ginseng genes: PgDDS, CYP716A47, and CYP716A53v2

Protopanaxatriol is an aglycone of ginsenosides, which has high medicinal values. Production of protopanaxatriol (PPT) from natural ginseng plants requires artificial deglycosylation procedures of ginsenosides via enzymatic or chemo-physical treatments. Metabolic engineering could be an efficient technology for production of ginsenoside sapogenin. For PPT biosynthesis in P. ginseng, damarenediol-II synthase (PgDDS) and two cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYP716A47 and CYP716A53v2) are essentially required.