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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

08:09
Annotation of Plant Gene Function via Combined Genomics, Metabolomics and Informatics
Published on: June 17, 2012
19.7K
Cutting-edge plant natural product pathway elucidation
Jianing Han1, Emma Parker Miller2, Sijin Li1
1Robert F. Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Current Opinion in Biotechnology
|April 27, 2024
Summary
Discovering plant natural product (PNP) biosynthetic pathways is crucial for understanding plant evolution and enabling sustainable production. This review highlights advanced multiomics and heterologous expression strategies for PNP pathway discovery.
Area of Science:
- Biochemistry
- Plant Science
- Metabolic Engineering
Background:
- Plant natural products (PNPs) are vital in plant physiology and human applications.
- Understanding PNP biosynthesis aids in plant evolution studies and sustainable production via metabolic engineering.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review current strategies for predicting and characterizing PNP biosynthetic pathways.
- To present perspectives on integrated bioinformatic and biochemical pipelines for systematic pathway discovery.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing multiomics-guided tools for pathway prediction.
- Employing heterologous host systems for pathway characterization.
- Integrating bioinformatic and biochemical approaches.
Main Results:
- Summarizes state-of-the-art methods for PNP pathway discovery.
- Provides recent examples of successful pathway prediction and characterization.
- Highlights the potential of integrated systematic pipelines.
Conclusions:
- Advanced strategies significantly improve PNP biosynthetic pathway discovery.
- Integrated approaches offer a systematic pipeline for future research.
- This review provides a roadmap for efficient PNP discovery and application.
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