Benedito Vagner A, Modolo Luzia V
Genetics and Developmental Biology Program, Plant and Soil Sciences Division, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA 26506-6108.
Recent Pat Biotechnol. 2014;8(1):61-75. doi: 10.2174/1872208307666131218125801.
Plants are capable of producing a myriad of chemical compounds. While these compounds serve specific functions in the plant, many have surprising effects on the human body, often with positive action against diseases. These compounds are often difficult to synthesize ex vivo and require the coordinated and compartmentalized action of enzymes in living organisms. However, the amounts produced in whole plants are often small and restricted to single tissues of the plant or even cellular organelles, making their extraction an expensive process. Since most natural products used in therapeutics are specialized, secondary plant metabolites, we provide here an overview of the classification of the main classes of these compounds, with its biochemical pathways and how this information can be used to create efficient in and ex planta production pipelines to generate highly valuable compounds. Metabolic genetic engineering is introduced in light of physiological and genetic methods to enhance production of high-value plant secondary metabolites.
植物能够产生无数种化合物。虽然这些化合物在植物中发挥着特定功能，但许多对人体有惊人的作用，通常对疾病有积极疗效。这些化合物通常很难在体外合成，需要活生物体中酶的协同和区室化作用。然而，整株植物中产生的量往往很少，且局限于植物的单个组织甚至细胞器，这使得它们的提取过程成本高昂。由于治疗中使用的大多数天然产物都是植物特化的次生代谢产物，我们在此概述这些化合物的主要类别分类、其生化途径，以及如何利用这些信息创建高效的体内和体外生产流程以生成高价值化合物。结合生理和遗传方法引入代谢基因工程，以提高高价值植物次生代谢产物的产量。
