RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, 1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230-0045, Japan.
Curr Opin Plant Biol. 2013 Jun;16(3):373-80. doi: 10.1016/j.pbi.2013.04.001. Epub 2013 Apr 27.
Phytochemical genomics is a recently emerging field, which investigates the genomic basis of the synthesis and function of phytochemicals (plant metabolites), particularly based on advanced metabolomics. The chemical diversity of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana is larger than previously expected, and the gene-to-metabolite correlations have been elucidated mostly by an integrated analysis of transcriptomes and metabolomes. For example, most genes involved in the biosynthesis of flavonoids in Arabidopsis have been characterized by this method. A similar approach has been applied to the functional genomics for production of phytochemicals in crops and medicinal plants. Great promise is seen in metabolic quantitative loci analysis in major crops such as rice and tomato, and identification of novel genes involved in the biosynthesis of bioactive specialized metabolites in medicinal plants.
植物化学基因组学是一个新兴领域，主要研究植物化学物质（植物代谢物）合成和功能的基因组基础，特别是基于先进的代谢组学。模式植物拟南芥的化学多样性比以前预期的要大，基因与代谢物的相关性主要是通过对转录组和代谢组的综合分析来阐明的。例如，通过这种方法已经鉴定出拟南芥中黄酮类化合物生物合成中涉及的大多数基因。类似的方法也应用于作物和药用植物中植物化学物质的功能基因组学。在水稻和番茄等主要作物的代谢数量性状位点分析以及鉴定药用植物中生物活性特殊代谢物生物合成的新基因方面，前景广阔。
