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Biochemistry of Plant Secondary Metabolism

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A characteristic feature of plants is their capacity to synthesize and store a
wide variety of low molecular weight compounds, the so-called secondary
metabolites (SMs) or natural products. The number of described structures
exceeds 100 000; the real number in nature is certainly much higher because
only 20–30% of plants have been investigated in phytochemistry so far. In
contrast to primary metabolites, which are essential for the life of every plant,
the individual types of SMs usually occur in a limited number of plants,
indicating that they are not essential for primary metabolism, i.e. anabolism
or catabolism.

Whereas SMs had been considered to be waste products or otherwise useless
compounds for many years, it has become evident over the past three
decades that SMs have important roles for the plants producing them: they
may function as signal compounds within the plant, or between the plant
producing them and other plants, microbes, herbivores, predators of herbivores,
pollinating or seed-dispersing animals. More often SMs serve as defence
chemicals against herbivorous animals (insects, molluscs, mammals),
microbes (bacteria, fungi), viruses or plants competing for light, water and
nutrients. Therefore, SMs are ultimately important for the fitness of the plant
producing them. Plants usually produce complex mixtures of SMs, often
representing different classes, such as alkaloids, phenolics or terpenoids. It is
likely that the individual components of a mixture can exert not only additive
but certainly also synergistic effects by attacking more than a single molecular
target. Because the structures of SMs have been shaped and optimized
during more than 500 million years of evolution, many of them exert interesting
biological and pharmacological properties which make them useful for
medicine or as biorational pesticides.

In this volume of Annual Plant Reviews, we have tried to provide an
up-to-date survey of the biochemistry and physiology of plant secondary
metabolism.Acompanion volume – M.Wink (ed.) Functions of Plant Secondary
Metabolites and Biotechnology – published simultaneously provides overviews
of the modes of action of bioactive SMs and their use in pharmacology as
molecular probes, in medicine as therapeutic agents and in agriculture as
biorational pesticides.

In order to understand the importance of SMs for plants, we need detailed
information on the biochemistry of secondary metabolism and its integration
into the physiology and ecology of plants. Important issues include
characterization of enzymes and genes of corresponding biosynthetic pathways,
and of transport and storage mechanisms, regulation in space/time
and compartmentation of both biosynthesis and storage. The study of secondary
metabolism has profited largely from the recent progress in molecular
biology and cell biology and the diverse genome projects. Although Arabidopsis
thaliana is not an excellent candidate to study secondary metabolism on
the first view, the genomic analyses, EST-libraries, mutants and other tools of
A. thaliana have been extremely helpful to elucidate secondary metabolism
in other plants.

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Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

Annual plant reviews ; v. 40

No. Panggil

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Penerbit

West Sussex : Blackwell Publishing Ltd.., 2010

Deskripsi Fisik

QK881.B54; 572
.42–dc22

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

978-1-4051-8397-0

Klasifikasi

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

2nd ed.

Subjek

BIOKIMIA TANAMAN
BIOKIMIA

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

agus

Versi lain/terkait

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