Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 11, 2026

A Customizable Approach for the Enzymatic Production and Purification of Diterpenoid Natural Products
Published on: October 4, 2019
Plant Metabolic Engineering Strategies for the Production of Pharmaceutical Terpenoids
Xu Lu1, Kexuan Tang2, Ping Li1
1State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University Nanjing, China.
Abstract:
Pharmaceutical terpenoids belong to the most diverse class of natural products. They have significant curative effects on a variety of diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, malaria and Alzheimer's disease. Nowadays, elicitors, including biotic and abiotic elicitors, are often used to activate the pathway of secondary metabolism and enhance the production of target terpenoids. Based on Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation, several plant metabolic engineering strategies hold great promise to regulate the biosynthesis of pharmaceutical terpenoids. Overexpressing terpenoids biosynthesis pathway genes in homologous and ectopic plants is an effective strategy to enhance the yield of pharmaceutical terpenoids. Another strategy is to suppress the expression of competitive metabolic pathways. In addition, global regulation which includes regulating the relative transcription factors, endogenous phytohormones and primary metabolism could also markedly increase their yield. All these strategies offer great opportunities to enhance the supply of scarce terpenoids drugs, reduce the price of expensive drugs and improve people's standards of living.
Related Concept Videos
Plant Breeding and Biotechnology
Synthetic Biology
Golden rice
Golden rice is a genetically modified...
C4 Pathway and CAM
C4 Pathway
The C4 pathway is used by plants such as...
Bioremediation
Transgenic Plants
The first-ever transgenic plant was a tobacco plant developed in 1983 that showed resistance against the tobacco mosaic virus. Since then, many transgenic plants have been developed and commercialized for improving the agricultural, ornamental, and horticultural value of a crop plant. Transgenic...
Overview of Metabolism
Plant Metabolism
Sunlight, the primary source of energy in plants, is first absorbed by the chlorophyll pigments present in their leaves. Plants then use this energy to carry out photosynthesis, where water is oxidized into oxygen and carbon dioxide...

