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Updated: Mar 22, 2026
08:09
Annotation of Plant Gene Function via Combined Genomics, Metabolomics and Informatics
Published on: June 17, 2012
20.6K
Plant metabolic clusters - from genetics to genomics
Hans-Wilhelm Nützmann1, Ancheng Huang1, Anne Osbourn1
1Department of Metabolic Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.
The New Phytologist
|April 27, 2016
Summary
Discovering new plant natural products is accelerating due to advances in gene sequencing and the identification of biosynthetic gene clusters. This enables systematic mining of plant genomes for novel enzymes and pathways.
Area of Science:
- Plant science
- Biochemistry
- Genomics
Background:
- Plant natural products are crucial for agriculture, medicine, and industry.
- Discovering new natural product pathways is a key research area.
- Biosynthetic gene clusters are increasingly recognized in plant genomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent advances in discovering plant natural product pathways.
- To highlight the role of sequencing technology and gene clusters.
- To outline strategies for systematic genome mining.
Main Methods:
- Review of current literature on plant natural product discovery.
- Analysis of advances in sequencing technologies.
- Examination of identified biosynthetic gene clusters in plants.
Main Results:
- Sequencing breakthroughs accelerate the identification of genes for natural product biosynthesis.
- Plant genomes contain grouped biosynthetic gene clusters.
- Systematic mining of plant genomes is becoming feasible.
Conclusions:
- Advances in genomics and gene cluster identification are revolutionizing natural product discovery.
- Understanding gene cluster architecture, regulation, and assembly is vital.
- This progress facilitates the discovery of new plant-derived compounds for various applications.
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