A Revolution in Plant Metabolism: Genome-Enabled Pathway Discovery

Genome-enabled discoveries are the hallmark of 21st century biology, including major discoveries in the biosynthesis and regulation of plant metabolic pathways. Access to next generation sequencing technologies has enabled research on the biosynthesis of diverse plant metabolites, especially secondary metabolites, resulting in a broader understanding of not only the structural and regulatory genes involved in metabolite biosynthesis but also in the evolution of chemical diversity in the plant kingdom. Several paradigms that govern secondary metabolism have emerged, including that (1) gene family expansion and diversification contribute to the chemical diversity found in the plant kingdom, (2) genes encoding biochemical pathway components are frequently transcriptionally coregulated, and (3) physical clustering of nonhomologous genes that encode components of secondary metabolic pathways can occur. With an increasing knowledge base that is coupled with user-friendly and inexpensive technologies, biochemists are poised to accelerate the annotation of biochemical pathways relevant to human health, agriculture, and the environment.