Plants make many biologically active, specialized metabolites, which vary in structure, biosynthesis, and the processes they influence. An increasing number of these compounds are documented to protect plants from insects, pathogens, or herbivores or to mediate interactions with beneficial organisms, including pollinators and nitrogen-fixing microbes. Acylsugars, one class of protective compounds, are made in glandular trichomes of plants across the Solanaceae family. While most described acylsugars are acylsucroses, published examples also include acylsugars with hexose cores. The South American fruit crop naranjilla (lulo; Solanum quitoense) produces acylsugars containing a myoinositol core. We identified an enzyme that acetylates triacylinositols, a function homologous to the last step in the acylsucrose biosynthetic pathway of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Our analysis reveals parallels between S. lycopersicum acylsucrose and S. quitoense acylinositol biosynthesis, suggesting a common evolutionary origin.

植物产生许多具有生物活性的专门代谢产物，这些代谢产物的结构，生物合成及其影响的过程各不相同。越来越多的这类化合物被证明可以保护植物免受昆虫，病原体或食草动物的侵害，或介导与有益生物的相互作用，包括授粉媒介和固氮微生物。酰基糖是一类保护性化合物，是在茄科的植物的腺毛中制成的。尽管大多数描述的酰基糖是酰基蔗糖，但已公开的实例还包括具有己糖核的酰基糖。南美水果作物naranjilla（lulo; Solanum quitoense）生产含有肌醇核心的酰基糖。我们鉴定了一种乙酰化三酰基肌醇的酶，该酶的功能与番茄的酰基蔗糖生物合成途径的最后一步（茄子）有关。我们的分析揭示了S. lycopersicum acylsucrose和s。quitoense acylinositol生物合成之间的相似之处，表明了共同的进化起源。