Regulation of Monoterpenoid Indole Alkaloid biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus

植物世界已经被人类作为食物、衣服、能源和药物的来源进行了大量的开发。我们的研究最终表明，具有重要医学意义的次生代谢物（如抗癌花楸生物碱）的生物合成和积累发生在一个特殊的叶表皮组中，该表皮组也适应其他几种防御性和结构性代谢物的生物合成。由于Catharanthus的基础发现，未来的研究将继续记录这种细胞类型，以利用叶表皮的生物合成潜力和分泌性质来生产大量的次生代谢物，为一系列人类活动服务。现代遗传工具（高通量测序和生物信息学）正在与现有技术相结合，以了解特定植物细胞如何被编程以制造天然产品，这些知识将被科学广泛利用，以生产现代社会所需的药物、着色剂、香料、香味和其他化学原料。利用植物的生物合成潜力是一种环保和可再生的方法，可以解决许多关于地球退化和全球变暖的担忧。

The plant world has been intensively exploited by humanity as a source of food, clothing, energy and medicine. Our studies have conclusively shown that biosynthesis and accumulation of medicinally important secondary metabolites such as anticancer Catharanthus alkaloids take place within a specialized leaf epidermome that also accommodates the biosynthesis of several other defensive and structural metabolites. As a result of fundamental discoveries in Catharanthus, future research will continue to document this cell type in view of harnessing the biosynthetic potential and the secretory nature of the leaf epidermis for production of a large range of secondary metabolites to serve a range of human activities. Modern genetic tools (High throughput sequencing and Bioinformatics) are being combined with existing technologies to understand how particular plant cells are programmed for manufacturing natural products and this knowledge will be broadly harnessed by Science to produce pharmaceuticals, colorants, flavours, aromas and other chemical feed stocks that are required by modern societies. Harnessing the biosynthetic potential of plants is an environmentally friendly and renewable approach to solving many of the concerns about planetary degradation and global warming.