Foundations for Directed Alkaloid Biosynthesis

Transcription factors in alkaloid biosynthesis.

Higher plants produce a large variety of low-molecular weight secondary compounds. Among them, nitrogen-containing alkaloids are the most biologically active and are often used pharmaceutically. Whereas alkaloid chemistry has been intensively investigated, alkaloid biosynthesis, including the relevant biosynthetic enzymes, genes and their regulation, and especially transcription factors, is lar...

Alkaloid biosynthesis: metabolism and trafficking.

Alkaloids represent a highly diverse group of compounds that are related only by the occurrence of a nitrogen atom in a heterocyclic ring. Plants are estimated to produce approximately 12,000 different alkaloids, which can be organized into groups according to their carbon skeletal structures. Alkaloid biosynthesis in plants involves many catalytic steps, catalyzed by enzymes that belong to a w...

Fifty years of alkaloid biosynthesis in Phytochemistry.

An overview is presented of the studies related to the biosynthesis of alkaloids published in Phytochemistry in the past 50 years.

Metabolic engineering of plant alkaloid biosynthesis.

Plant alkaloids, one of the largest groups of natural products, provide many pharmacologically active compounds. Several genes in the biosynthetic pathways for scopolamine, nicotine, and berberine have been cloned, making the metabolic engineering of these alkaloids possible. Expression of two branching-point enzymes was engineered: putrescine N-methyltransferase (PMT) in transgenic plants of A...

Alkaloid Biosynthesis -The Basis for Metabolic Engineering of Medicinal Plants