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Commercialization of green note production technology
University of Kentucky Six-carbon aldehydes and alcohols such as E-2-hexenal (leaf aldehyde) and Z-3-hexenol (leaf alcohol) are the major characteristic components of fresh, ‘green’ aroma and flavors of vegetables and fruits. These chemicals, collectively referred to as “green note” compounds, are widely used in the flavor and fragrance industry (F&F) as “fresh” flavor ingredients in foods and beverages, and the use of these “natural” compounds is increasing. The formation of these volatiles from hydrolyzed plant oil rich in linolenic acid only requires two enzymes; lipoxygenase and hydroperoxide lyase. The highest natural producer of these molecules is watermelon, Citrullus lanatus. We were the first to clone the C. lanatus hydroperoxide lyase cDNA. We have successfully transformed Nicotiana plants with this C. lanatus hydroperoxide lyase gene and demonstrated dramatically increased enzymatic activity in higher expressing plant tissues. Using a combination of these high expressing leaves and a seed preparation of a certain soybean line we have elucidated as a lipoxygenase source, we achieved about 10 times more hexenal production from linolenic acid than the highest producing commercial natural source. Commercialization of this technology would benefit of Kentucky farmers, local economic development and ultimately consumers. This commercialization work will concentrate on scaling up our protocols to a pilot scale and compare compound yield and purity from whole reaction systems with products from partially purified enzyme preparations. The project brings together different Kentucky-based expertise, know-how, and industry so as to achieve a new opportunity in life sciences in the Commonwealth, i.e. research, intellectual property, and genetic and plant materials from UK, bioprocessing and bulk plant-production capability from Kentucky Bioprocessing LLC.
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