Yang Lei, Yang Changqing, Li Chenyi, Zhao Qing, Liu Ling, Fang Xin, Chen Xiao-Ya
Plant Science Research Center, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Resources, Shanghai, 201602 China.
National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032 China.
Sci Bull (Beijing). 2016;61:3-17. doi: 10.1007/s11434-015-0929-2. Epub 2015 Nov 2.
Plants synthesize and accumulate large amount of specialized (or secondary) metabolites also known as natural products, which provide a rich source for modern pharmacy. In China, plants have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years. Recent development of molecular biology, genomics and functional genomics as well as high-throughput analytical chemical technologies has greatly promoted the research on medicinal plants. In this article, we review recent advances in the elucidation of biosynthesis of specialized metabolites in medicinal plants, including phenylpropanoids, terpenoids and alkaloids. These natural products may share a common upstream pathway to form a limited numbers of common precursors, but are characteristic in distinct modifications leading to highly variable structures. Although this review is focused on traditional Chinese medicine, other plants with a great medicinal interest or potential are also discussed. Understanding of their biosynthesis processes is critical for producing these highly value molecules at large scale and low cost in microbes and will benefit to not only human health but also plant resource conservation.
植物合成并积累大量的特殊（或次生）代谢产物，也称为天然产物，这些产物为现代药学提供了丰富的来源。在中国，植物用于传统医学已有数千年历史。分子生物学、基因组学和功能基因组学以及高通量分析化学技术的最新发展极大地推动了药用植物的研究。在本文中，我们综述了药用植物中特殊代谢产物生物合成解析方面的最新进展，包括苯丙素类、萜类和生物碱。这些天然产物可能共享一个共同的上游途径以形成有限数量的共同前体，但在导致高度可变结构的不同修饰方面具有特征性。尽管本综述聚焦于传统中药，但也讨论了其他具有重大药用价值或潜力的植物。了解它们的生物合成过程对于在微生物中大规模、低成本生产这些高价值分子至关重要，这不仅将有益于人类健康，还将有利于植物资源保护。
