State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Industrial Microorganisms, Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Plant Biology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; email:
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany; email:
Annu Rev Plant Biol. 2024 Jul;75(1):629-653. doi: 10.1146/annurev-arplant-060223-013842. Epub 2024 Jul 2.
Plant specialized metabolites (PSMs) are variably distributed across taxa, tissues, and ecological contexts; this variability has inspired many theories about PSM function, which, to date, remain poorly tested because predictions have outpaced the available data. Advances in mass spectrometry-based metabolomics have enabled unbiased PSM profiling, and molecular biology techniques have produced PSM-free plants; the combination of these methods has accelerated our understanding of the complex ecological roles that PSMs play in plants. Synthetic biology techniques and workflows are producing high-value, structurally complex PSMs in quantities and purities sufficient for both medicinal and functional studies. These workflows enable the reengineering of PSM transport, externalization, structural diversity, and production in novel taxa, facilitating rigorous tests of long-standing theoretical predictions about why plants produce so many different PSMs in particular tissues and ecological contexts. Plants use their chemical prowess to solve ecological challenges, and synthetic biology workflows are accelerating our understanding of these evolved functions.
植物次生代谢物（PSMs）在分类群、组织和生态环境中分布不均；这种变异性激发了许多关于 PSM 功能的理论，但迄今为止，这些理论仍未得到充分验证，因为预测的结果已经超过了现有数据。基于质谱的代谢组学的进步使 PSM 无偏分析成为可能，而分子生物学技术则产生了不含 PSM 的植物；这些方法的结合加速了我们对 PSM 在植物中所扮演的复杂生态角色的理解。合成生物学技术和工作流程正在以足够的数量和纯度生产高价值、结构复杂的 PSM，足以进行医学和功能研究。这些工作流程使 PSM 运输、外化、结构多样性和在新分类群中的生产得以重新设计，从而能够严格测试关于植物在特定组织和生态环境中产生如此多不同 PSM 的长期理论预测。植物利用其化学能力来解决生态挑战，而合成生物学工作流程正在加速我们对这些进化功能的理解。
