Wu Shuiqin, Chappell Joe
Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, 1405 Veterans Drive, Lexington, KY 40546, USA.
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2008 Apr;19(2):145-52. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2008.02.007. Epub 2008 Mar 28.
Plant natural products play essential roles in plant survivability and many of them are used as nutrients, colorants, flavors, fragrances, and medicines. Genetic engineering of plants for natural products can help alleviate the demands for limited natural resources. Successes in enhancing production capacities have included manipulating blocks of genes coding for segments of pathways, over-expression of putative rate-limiting steps in pathways, expression of transcription factors regulating the entire metabolic pathways, and the construction of novel branch pathways capable of diverting carbon to the biosynthesis of unique metabolites in unexpected intracellular compartments. Further enhancements are likely if more efficient pathways can be constructed, providing for the efficient channeling of intermediates to final products, and if the means for sequestering natural products in planta can be accomplished.
植物天然产物在植物生存能力方面发挥着重要作用，其中许多被用作营养物质、色素、香料、香精和药物。对植物进行天然产物的基因工程改造有助于缓解对有限自然资源的需求。提高生产能力的成功案例包括操纵编码途径片段的基因块、过表达途径中假定的限速步骤、表达调节整个代谢途径的转录因子，以及构建能够将碳转移到意外细胞内区室中独特代谢物生物合成的新型分支途径。如果能够构建更有效的途径，使中间体有效地转化为最终产物，并且能够实现在植物中隔离天然产物的方法，那么产量可能会进一步提高。
