title: Recent advances in biosynthesis of bioactive compounds in traditional Chinese medicinal plants.
abstract: Plants synthesize and accumulate large amount of specialized (or secondary) metabolites also known as natural products, which provide a rich source for modern pharmacy. In China, plants have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years. Recent development of molecular biology, genomics and functional genomics as well as high-throughput analytical chemical technologies has greatly promoted the research on medicinal plants. In this article, we review recent advances in the elucidation of biosynthesis of specialized metabolites in medicinal plants, including phenylpropanoids, terpenoids and alkaloids. These natural products may share a common upstream pathway to form a limited numbers of common precursors, but are characteristic in distinct modifications leading to highly variable structures. Although this review is focused on traditional Chinese medicine, other plants with a great medicinal interest or potential are also discussed. Understanding of their biosynthesis processes is critical for producing these highly value molecules at large scale and low cost in microbes and will benefit to not only human health but also plant resource conservation.
authors: Plant Science Research Center, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Resources, Shanghai, 201602 China.
authors: Lei
authors: L
authors: Yang
authors: National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032 China.
authors: Changqing
authors: C
authors: Yang
authors: National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032 China ; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China.
authors: Chenyi
authors: C
authors: Li
authors: National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032 China.
authors: Qing
authors: Q
authors: Zhao
authors: Plant Science Research Center, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Resources, Shanghai, 201602 China.
authors: Ling
authors: L
authors: Liu
authors: National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032 China.
authors: Xin
authors: X
authors: Fang
authors: Plant Science Research Center, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Resources, Shanghai, 201602 China ; National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032 China.
authors: Xiao-Ya
authors: XY
authors: Chen
keywords: Alkaloid; Biosynthesis; Medicinal plant; Phenylpropanoid; Terpenoid