Medicinal plants meet modern biodiversity science

CC Davis, P Choisy - Current Biology, 2024‏ - cell.com
Plants have been an essential source of human medicine for millennia. In this review, we
argue that a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to the study of medicinal plants that …

Cannabis sativa: origin and history, glandular trichome development, and cannabinoid biosynthesis

Z **e, Y Mi, L Kong, M Gao, S Chen… - Horticulture …, 2023‏ - academic.oup.com
Is Cannabis a boon or bane? Cannabis sativa has long been a versatile crop for fiber
extraction (industrial hemp), traditional Chinese medicine (hemp seeds), and recreational …

[HTML][HTML] Engineering Nicotiana benthamiana as a platform for natural product biosynthesis

D Golubova, C Tansley, H Su, NJ Patron - Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 2024‏ - Elsevier
Nicotiana benthamiana is a model plant, widely used for research. The susceptibility of
young plants to Agrobacterium tumefaciens has been utilised for transient gene expression …

Convergent evolution of berberine biosynthesis

Z Xu, Y Tian, J Wang, Y Ma, Q Li, Y Zhou, W Zhang… - Science …, 2024‏ - science.org
Berberine is an effective antimicrobial and antidiabetic alkaloid, primarily extracted from
divergent botanical lineages, specifically Coptis (Ranunculales, early-diverging eudicot) and …

Haplotype-phased genome unveils the butylphthalide biosynthesis and homoploid hybrid origin of Ligusticum chuanxiong

B Nie, X Chen, Z Hou, M Guo, C Li, W Sun, J Ji… - Science …, 2024‏ - science.org
Butylphthalide is one of the first-line drugs for ischemic stroke therapy, while no biosynthetic
enzyme for butylphthalide has been reported. Here, we present a haplotype-resolved …

Sesquiterpene lactones–insights into biosynthesis, regulation and signalling roles

M Frey, K Vahabi, K Cankar, ND Lackus… - Critical Reviews in …, 2024‏ - Taylor & Francis
Sesquiterpene lactones (STLs) are bitter tasting plant specialized metabolites derived from
farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) that contain a characteristic lactone ring. STLs can be found …

Exploring the evolvability of plant specialized metabolism: uniqueness out of uniformity and uniqueness behind uniformity

E Ono, J Murata - Plant and Cell Physiology, 2023‏ - academic.oup.com
The huge structural diversity exhibited by plant specialized metabolites has primarily been
considered to result from the catalytic specificity of their biosynthetic enzymes. Accordingly …

Engineering cannabinoid production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

C Schmidt, M Aras, O Kayser - Biotechnology Journal, 2024‏ - Wiley Online Library
Phytocannabinoids are natural products with highly interesting pharmacological properties
mainly produced by plants. The production of cannabinoids in a heterologous host system …

[HTML][HTML] Plant synthetic biology for human health: advances in producing medicines in heterologous expression systems

R Sadre - Current opinion in biotechnology, 2024‏ - Elsevier
Highlights•The “triple P” concept drives plant engineering for high-value natural
products.•Artificial organelles offer new opportunities to boost plant natural product …

Cannabinoids function in defense against chewing herbivores in Cannabis sativa L.

GM Stack, SI Snyder, JA Toth, MA Quade… - Horticulture …, 2023‏ - academic.oup.com
In the decades since the first cannabinoids were identified by scientists, research has
focused almost exclusively on the function and capacity of cannabinoids as medicines and …