title: Comparative Biochemistry and In Vitro Pathway Reconstruction as Powerful Partners in Studies of Metabolic Diversity.
abstract: There are estimated to be >300,000 plant species, producing >200,000 metabolites. Many of these metabolites are restricted to specific plant lineages and are referred to as "specialized" metabolites. These serve varied functions in plants including defense against biotic and abiotic stresses, plant-plant and plant-microbe communication, and pollinator attraction. These compounds also have important applications in agriculture, medicine, skin care, and in diverse aspects of human culture. The specialized metabolic repertoire of plants can vary even within and between closely related species, in terms of the number and classes of specialized metabolites as well as their structural variants. This phenotypic variation can be exploited to discover the underlying variation in the metabolic enzymes. We describe approaches for using the diversity of specialized metabolites and variation in enzyme structure and function to identify novel enzymatic activities and understand the structural basis for these differences. The knowledge obtained from these studies will provide new modules for the synthetic biology toolbox.
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States.
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Moghe
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States. Electronic address: lastr@msu.edu.
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Last
mesh_terms: D000215:Acylation; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000032:analysis*; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D008958:Models, Molecular; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D019657:Solanaceae / Q000737:chemistry / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D002241:Carbohydrates; D010940:Plant Proteins
keywords: Acylsucrose; BAHD acyltransferase; Comparative biochemistry; Comparative genomics; Enzyme structure–function; Metabolic pathway reconstruction; Solanaceae; Solanum; Specialized metabolism; Tomato