Recent progress in secondary metabolism of plant glandular trichomes

Abstract

Trichomes can be found on the surfaces of the leaves, stems, and other organs of many angiosperm plants. Plant trichomes are commonly divided into two classes: glandular trichomes and non-glandular trichomes. Glandular trichomes produce large quantities of specialized natural compounds of diverse classes and are regarded as 'chemical factories' due to their impressively efficient biosynthetic capacities. This efficiency makes glandular trichomes an excellent experimental system for the elucidation of both the biosynthesis and the mechanisms of regulation of natural product pathways. The development of various -omics techniques has greatly accelerated experimental procedures that are typically used in combination with trichome studies. The purpose this review is to provide an introduction to the methods and technologies used for the investigation of glandular trichomes, to summarize current progress in the field, and to highlight the potential applications of trichome studies in metabolic engineering using the strategies of synthetic biology.

Metabolic engineering of terpene biosynthesis in plants using a trichome‐specific transcription factor MsYABBY5 from spearmint (Mentha spicata)

“…As they can synthesize and store a large amount of secondary metabolites, they are aptly termed as ‘tiny chemical factories’ of plants. But very few studies have focussed on TFs that regulate glandular trichome‐specific metabolic pathways (Wang, ), which will greatly facilitate metabolic engineering efforts to increase yield or develop plant platforms to produce high value compounds. Studies in understanding the transcriptional control of secondary metabolite production show the expression of both activators and repressors is necessary to fine‐tune the flux, timing and the level of structural gene expression in a pathway (Albert et al ., ; Cavallini et al ., ; Patra et al ., ).…”

Integrative Analyses of Nontargeted Volatile Profiling and Transcriptome Data Provide Molecular Insight into VOC Diversity in Cucumber Plants (Cucumis sativus)

“…Although the amount of such data has expanded to a vast scale, two classical criteria are still used for novel gene elucidation using the reverse genetics strategy: (1) positive correlation between gene expression pattern and the metabolite accumulation pattern; and (2) known biochemical knowledge about the likely functions of enzymes that may catalyze a given enzymatic step of interest. Using a genome-wide correlation analysis, one can expect to identify all of the gene candidates for each enzymatic step of a specific pathway, even the whole metabolic network (Wang, 2014). However, functional characterization of predicted genes is still a laborious procedure in the laboratory.…”

Lavandula Essential Oils: A Current Review of Applications in Medicinal, Food, and Cosmetic Industries of Lavender

“…Lavenders produce and store EO in specialized structures known as peltate glandular trichomes, or oil glands [34]. In these structures, six to eight secretory cells are specialized to produce and secrete EO constituents (a mixture of mono-and sesquiterpenes) into a subcuticular storage cavity [35,36]. Like other terpenoids, lavender EO constituents are derived from isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP), and its isomer dimethylallyl diphosphate (DMAPP) derived from both the Mevalonate (MVA) or cytosolic pathway, and the 2-Cmethyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) or plastidial pathway of terpenoid metabolism [34,[36][37][38][39][40].…”