The biosynthetic origin of psychoactive kavalactones in kava
bioRxiv Preprint Server April 4, 2018 Tomáš Pluskal, Michael P. Torrens-Spence, Timothy R. Fallon et al. 3 citations preprint
Kava, a medicinal plant used for over 3,000 years in Polynesia, produces kavalactones—compounds that reduce anxiety and pain through mechanisms distinct from benzodiazepines and opioids. This work identifies the seven enzymes that build kavalactones, showing that two of them evolved from an ancestral enzyme to create the core kavalactone structure. Further enzymes then modify this scaffold to generate diverse kavalactones. The pathway was successfully transplanted into bacteria, yeast, and plants, enabling production of kavalactones and their derivatives. This opens a route to developing new treatments for anxiety disorders, which affect over 260 million people worldwide.