Abstract

Saxifraga stolonifera is a Chinese traditional medicine for otitis media treatment. A few terpenoids were identified from S. stolonifera but the involved genes are unclear. Here, we mined a farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase gene ( SsFPS ) from the full-length transcriptome of S. stolonifera and confirmed it was expressed in cytoplasm. Subsequently, the enzymatic activity of SsFPS was characterized by in-vitro assays and heterologous expression in E.coli . Moreover, the gene expression pattern of SsFPS was positively correlated to which of a squalene synthase gene ( SsSS ) involved in triterpenoid biosynthesis and consistent to the accumulation pattern of total saponins in tissues. Taken together, SsFPS was characterized as an ( E , E )-farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase in S. stolonifera and suggested to participate in sesquiterpenoid and triterpenoid biosynthesis which provides the support to explore the biosynthesis and pharmacological activity of triterpenoid in Saxifraga.