Applications of Plant Metabolic Engineering

R. VERPOORTE Division of Pharmacognosy, section Metabolomics, IBL, Leiden University PO Box 9502, 2300RA Leiden, The Netherlands, Email: [email protected] In the past years the interest in plant secondary has increased rapidly. Three major... Read more

R. VERPOORTE Division of Pharmacognosy, section Metabolomics, IBL, Leiden University PO Box 9502, 2300RA Leiden, The Netherlands, Email: [email protected] In the past years the interest in plant secondary has increased rapidly. Three major reasons can be mentioned for this. First because plants are a major source for the production of medicines and the development of novel medicines; second because plants contain health promoting secondary metabolites, third because of the interest in the resistance of plants against pests and diseases in which the secondary metabolism plays a crucial role. Seven years ago we edited a book (Verpoorte and Alfermann 2000) on the engineering of plant secondary metabolism. A general overview was given of plant secondary metabolism, and the strategies one could envisage for engineering plant secondary metabolite pathways. Furthermore, a number of examples were presented describing the state-of-the-art of engineering plant secondary metabolism. Now we have again compiled a series of papers on the engineering of plant metabolism. Less