Abstract
The essential oils of peppermint and spearmint are distinguished by the position of oxygenation on the constituent p-menthane monoterpenes. Peppermint produces monoterpenes bearing an oxygen at C3, whereas spearmint produces monoterpenes bearing an oxygen at C6. Branching of the monoterpene biosynthetic pathways in these species is determined by two distinct cytochrome P450s that catalyze the regiospecific hydroxylation of (-)-4S-limonene at C3 or C6 exclusively. cDNAs encoding the limonene-3-hydroxylase from peppermint and the limonene-6-hydroxylase from spearmint have been isolated, shown to be 70% identical at the amino acid level, and functionally expressed. A combination of domain swapping and reciprocal site-directed mutagenesis between these two enzymes demonstrated that the exchange of a single residue (F363I) in the spearmint limonene-6-hydroxylase led to complete conversion to the regiospecificity and catalytic efficiency of the peppermint limonene-3-hydroxylase.