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Transcription Factors in Alkaloid Engineering

Plants produce a large variety of low-molecular-weight and specialized secondary compounds. Among them, nitrogen-containing alkaloids are the most biologically active and are often used in the pharmaceutical industry. Although alkaloid chemistry has been intensively investigated, characterization of...

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Autores principales: Yamada, Yasuyuki, Sato, Fumihiko
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8615522/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34827717
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biom11111719
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author Yamada, Yasuyuki
Sato, Fumihiko
author_facet Yamada, Yasuyuki
Sato, Fumihiko
author_sort Yamada, Yasuyuki
collection PubMed
description Plants produce a large variety of low-molecular-weight and specialized secondary compounds. Among them, nitrogen-containing alkaloids are the most biologically active and are often used in the pharmaceutical industry. Although alkaloid chemistry has been intensively investigated, characterization of alkaloid biosynthesis, including biosynthetic enzyme genes and their regulation, especially the transcription factors involved, has been relatively delayed, since only a limited number of plant species produce these specific types of alkaloids in a tissue/cell-specific or developmental-specific manner. Recent advances in molecular biology technologies, such as RNA sequencing, co-expression analysis of transcripts and metabolites, and functional characterization of genes using recombinant technology and cutting-edge technology for metabolite identification, have enabled a more detailed characterization of alkaloid pathways. Thus, transcriptional regulation of alkaloid biosynthesis by transcription factors, such as basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH), APETALA2/ethylene-responsive factor (AP2/ERF), and WRKY, is well elucidated. In addition, jasmonate signaling, an important cue in alkaloid biosynthesis, and its cascade, interaction of transcription factors, and post-transcriptional regulation are also characterized and show cell/tissue-specific or developmental regulation. Furthermore, current sequencing technology provides more information on the genome structure of alkaloid-producing plants with large and complex genomes, for genome-wide characterization. Based on the latest information, we discuss the application of transcription factors in alkaloid engineering.
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spelling pubmed-86155222021-11-26 Transcription Factors in Alkaloid Engineering Yamada, Yasuyuki Sato, Fumihiko Biomolecules Review Plants produce a large variety of low-molecular-weight and specialized secondary compounds. Among them, nitrogen-containing alkaloids are the most biologically active and are often used in the pharmaceutical industry. Although alkaloid chemistry has been intensively investigated, characterization of alkaloid biosynthesis, including biosynthetic enzyme genes and their regulation, especially the transcription factors involved, has been relatively delayed, since only a limited number of plant species produce these specific types of alkaloids in a tissue/cell-specific or developmental-specific manner. Recent advances in molecular biology technologies, such as RNA sequencing, co-expression analysis of transcripts and metabolites, and functional characterization of genes using recombinant technology and cutting-edge technology for metabolite identification, have enabled a more detailed characterization of alkaloid pathways. Thus, transcriptional regulation of alkaloid biosynthesis by transcription factors, such as basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH), APETALA2/ethylene-responsive factor (AP2/ERF), and WRKY, is well elucidated. In addition, jasmonate signaling, an important cue in alkaloid biosynthesis, and its cascade, interaction of transcription factors, and post-transcriptional regulation are also characterized and show cell/tissue-specific or developmental regulation. Furthermore, current sequencing technology provides more information on the genome structure of alkaloid-producing plants with large and complex genomes, for genome-wide characterization. Based on the latest information, we discuss the application of transcription factors in alkaloid engineering. MDPI 2021-11-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8615522/ /pubmed/34827717 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biom11111719 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Yamada, Yasuyuki
Sato, Fumihiko
Transcription Factors in Alkaloid Engineering
title Transcription Factors in Alkaloid Engineering
title_full Transcription Factors in Alkaloid Engineering
title_fullStr Transcription Factors in Alkaloid Engineering
title_full_unstemmed Transcription Factors in Alkaloid Engineering
title_short Transcription Factors in Alkaloid Engineering
title_sort transcription factors in alkaloid engineering
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8615522/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34827717
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biom11111719
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