Search

The biosynthetic pathways of plant natural products offer an abundance of knowledge to scientists in many fields. Synthetic chemists can be inspired by the synthetic strategies that nature uses to construct these compounds. Chemical and biological engineers are working to reprogram these biosynthetic pathways to more efficiently produce valuable products. Finally, biochemists and enzymologists are interested in the detailed mechanisms of the complex transformations involved in the construction of these natural products. Study of biosynthetic enzymes and pathways therefore has a wide-ranging impact. In recent years, many plant biosynthetic pathways have been characterized, particularly the pathways that are responsible for alkaloid biosynthesis. Here we highlight recently studied alkaloid biosynthetic enzymes that catalyze production of numerous complex medicinal compounds, as well as the specifier proteins in glucosinosolate biosynthesis, whose structure and mechanism of action are just beginning to be unraveled.

Asparagine-linked glycosylation is an enzyme-catalyzed, co-translational protein modification reaction that has the capacity to influence either the protein folding process or the stability of the native glycoprotein conjugate. Advances in both glycoconjugate chemical synthesis and glycoprotein expression methods have increased the availability of these once elusive biopolymers. The application of spectroscopic methods to these proteins has begun to illuminate the various ways in which the saccharide affects the structure, function and stability of the proteins.

Metabolic pathways leading to benzylisoquinoline and monoterpene indole alkaloids in plants are revealing remarkable new reactions. Understanding of the enzymes involved in alkaloid biosynthesis provides access to a variety of applications in biocatalysis and bioengineering. In chemo-enzymatic settings, plant biocatalysts can transform medically important scaffolds. Additionally, synthetic biologists are taking alkaloid pathways as templates to assemble pathways in microorganisms that are tailored to the needs of medicinal chemistry. In light of these many recent discoveries, it is expected that plants will continue to be a source of novel biocatalysts for the foreseeable future.