Compartmentalization at the interface of primary and alkaloid metabolism

Jacinta L Watkins; Peter J Facchini

doi:10.1016/j.pbi.2022.102186

Compartmentalization at the interface of primary and alkaloid metabolism

Curr Opin Plant Biol. 2022 Apr:66:102186. doi: 10.1016/j.pbi.2022.102186. Epub 2022 Feb 23.

Authors

Jacinta L Watkins¹, Peter J Facchini²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
² Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada. Electronic address: pfacchin@ucalgary.ca.

PMID: 35219143
DOI: 10.1016/j.pbi.2022.102186

Abstract

Plants produce many compounds used by humans as medicines, including alkaloids of the benzylisoquinoline (BIA), monoterpene indole (MIA) and tropane classes. The biosynthetic pathways of these pharmaceutical alkaloids are complex and spatially segregated across several tissues, cell-types and organelles. This review discusses the origin of primary metabolic inputs required by these specialized biosynthetic pathways and considers aspects relevant to their spatial organization. These factors are important for alkaloid production both in the native plants and for synthetic biology pathway reconstruction in microorganisms.

Keywords: Alkaloid metabolism; Cellular compartmentalization; Cellular trafficking; Metabolic cofactors and co-substrates; Primary metabolism.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Alkaloids* / metabolism
Biosynthetic Pathways*
Plants / metabolism
Synthetic Biology

Substances

Alkaloids