Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology , Potsdam, Am Mühlenberg 1 14476, Germany.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2024 Nov 18;379(1914):20230352. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0352. Epub 2024 Sep 30.
A diverse array of plant aromatic compounds contributes to the tremendous chemical diversity in the plant kingdom that cannot be seen in microbes or animals. Such chemodiversity of aromatic natural products has emerged, occasionally in a lineage-specific manner, to adopt to challenging environmental niches, as various aromatic specialized metabolites play indispensable roles in plant development and stress responses (e.g. lignin, phytohormones, pigments and defence compounds). These aromatic natural products are synthesized from aromatic amino acids (AAAs), l-tyrosine, l-phenylalanine and l-tryptophan. While amino acid metabolism is generally assumed to be conserved between animals, microbes and plants, recent phylogenomic, biochemical and metabolomic studies have revealed the diversity of the AAA metabolism that supports efficient carbon allocation to downstream biosynthetic pathways of AAA-derived metabolites in plants. This review showcases the intra- and inter-kingdom diversification and origin of committed enzymes involved in plant AAA biosynthesis and catabolism and their potential application as genetic tools for plant metabolic engineering. I also discuss evolutionary trends in the diversification of plant AAA metabolism that expands the chemical diversity of AAA-derived aromatic natural products in plants. This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolution of plant metabolism'.
多种多样的植物芳香化合物促成了植物王国中巨大的化学多样性，而这种多样性在微生物或动物中是看不到的。这种芳香天然产物的化学多样性偶尔会以谱系特异性的方式出现，以适应具有挑战性的环境小生境，因为各种芳香专门代谢物在植物发育和应激反应中发挥着不可或缺的作用（例如木质素、植物激素、色素和防御化合物）。这些芳香天然产物是由芳香族氨基酸（AAAs）、l-酪氨酸、l-苯丙氨酸和 l-色氨酸合成的。虽然人们普遍认为动物、微生物和植物之间的氨基酸代谢是保守的，但最近的系统基因组学、生物化学和代谢组学研究揭示了 AAA 代谢的多样性，这种多样性支持将碳有效地分配到 AAA 衍生代谢物的下游生物合成途径中。这篇综述展示了参与植物 AAA 生物合成和分解代谢的关键酶的种内和种间多样化和起源，以及它们作为植物代谢工程遗传工具的潜在应用。我还讨论了植物 AAA 代谢多样化的进化趋势，这种趋势扩大了植物中 AAA 衍生芳香天然产物的化学多样性。本文是“植物代谢进化”主题专刊的一部分。
