Indole Alkaloid Biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus: The Establishment of a Model System

Abstract

A review and discussion with 42 refs. Plants possess the inherent ability to produce unique natural product chemistries as a result of differences that have been selected for throughout evolution. Selection through gene mutation and subsequent adaptation of metabolic pathways create new secondary products. The biosynthesis and accumulation of many secondary products, however, remain under remarkable control of the biotic and abiotic environments. The readiness of secondary metabolic pathways to sense the environment appears to be intimately related to their ability to evolve and is represented by the existence of several hundred thousand plant-based secondary metabolites. Catharanthus roseus, which produces nearly 200 different monoterpenoid indole alkaloids, displays a cell-tissue-development- and environment-specific control over their biosynthesis and accumulation. This chapter describes the exptl. approaches which have helped to understand various aspects of indole alkaloid biosynthesis in Catharanthus and which make it a good model system to study its regulation. [on SciFinder(R)]