Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T03:42:04.564Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Biotechnological utilization of plant genetic resources for the production of phytopharmaceuticals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2007

H. Rischer*
Affiliation:
VTT Biotechnology, FIN-02044, Espoo, Finland
K.-M. Oksman-Caldentey
Affiliation:
VTT Biotechnology, FIN-02044, Espoo, Finland
*
*Corresponding author: E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Natural products from plants are still important sources for the development of drugs, despite their recent neglect in pharmaceutical discovery programmes. The rapidly dwindling number of species endangers the availability of these natural compounds, which are characterized by the immense chemical and functional diversity ultimately responsible for their pharmaceutical activity. Although many steps in the drug discovery process have been continuously modified during recent years, a common dilemma is still unresolved, i.e. the supply crisis for hits discovered in rare wild plants due to their inaccessibility or lack of reproducibility. New technology, combining tissue culture, functional genomics and metabolomics, shows promise to overcome these problems and even to supply a greater chemical diversity of compounds.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © NIAB 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alba, R, Fei, Z, Payton, P, Liu, Y, Moore, SL, Debbie, P, Cohn, J, D'Ascenzo, M, Gordon, JS, Rose, JKC, Martin, G, Tanksley, SD, Bouzayen, M, Jahn, MM and Giovannoni, J (2004) ESTs, cDNA microarrays, and gene expression profiling: tools for dissecting plant physiology and development. The Plant Journal 39: 697714.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Askenazi, M, Driggers, EM, Holtzman, DA, Norman, TC, Iverson, S, Zimmer, DP, Boers, M-E, Blomquist, PR, Martinez, EJ, Monreal, AW, Feibelman, TP, Mayorga, ME, Maxon, ME, Sykes, K, Tobin, JV, Cordero, E, Salama, SR, Trueheart, J, Royer, JC and Madden, KT (2003) Integrating transcriptional and metabolite profiles to direct the engineering of lovastatin-producing fungal strains. Nature Biotechnology 21: 150156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Balick, MJ and Cox, PA (1996) Plants, People and Culture. The Science of Ethnobotany. New York: Scientific American LibraryGoogle Scholar
Bino, RJ, Hall, RD, Fiehn, O, Kopka, J, Saito, K, Draper, J, Nikolau, BJ, Mendes, P, Roessner-Tunali, U, Beale, MH, Tretheway, RN, Lange, BM, Wurtele, ES and Sumner, LW (2004) Potential of metabolomics as a functional genomics tool. Trends in Plant Science 9: 418425.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Breyne, P and Zabeau, M (2001) Genome-wide expression analysis of plant cell cycle modulated genes. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 4: 136142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bringmann, G, Wohlfarth, M, Rischer, H, Gruene, M and Schlauer, J (2000) A new biosynthetic pathway to alkaloids in plants: acetogenic isoquinolines. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 39: 14641466.3.0.CO;2-#>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Choi, YH, Tapias, EC, Kim, HK, Lefeber, AWM, Erkelens, C, Verhoeven, JTJ, Brzin, J, Zel, J and Verpoorte, R (2004) Metabolic discrimination of Catharanthus roseus leaves infected by phytoplasma using 1 H-NMR spectroscopy and multivariate data analysis. Plant Physiology 135: 23982410.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cordell, AC (2000) Biodiversity and drug discovery—a symbiotic relationship. Phytochemistry 55: 463480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Courtois, S, Cappellano, CM, Ball, M, Francou, F-X, Normand, P, Helynck, G, Martinez, A, Kolvek, SJ, Hopke, J, Osburne, MS, August, PR, Nalin, R, Guérineau, M, Jeannin, P, Simonet, P and Pernodet, J-L (2003) Recombinant environmental libraries provide access to microbial diversity for drug discovery from natural products. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 69: 4955.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cragg, GM, Schepartz, SA, Suffness, M and Grever, MR (1993) The Taxol supply crisis. New NCI policies for handling the large-scale production of novel natural product anticancer and anti-HIV agents. Journal of Natural Products 56: 16571668.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dawes, KO (1992) Promising AIDS drug lost Chicago Sun-Times 20 9 NovemberGoogle Scholar
Demain, AL (2002) Prescription for an ailing pharmaceutical industry. Nature Biotechnology 20: 331CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dickson, M and Gagnon, JP (2004) Key factors in the rising cost of new drug discovery and development. Nature Reviews 3: 417429.Google ScholarPubMed
Ding, C and Cantor, CR (2004) Quantitative analysis of nucleic acids—the last few years of progress. Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 37: 110.Google ScholarPubMed
Duran, N de, Conti, R and Rodrigues, JAR (2000) Biotransformation by microorganisms, organisms and enzymes: state of art. Boletin de la Sociedad Chilena de Quimica 45: 109121.Google Scholar
Eckermann, S, Schröder, G, Schmidt, J, Strack, D, Edrada, RA, Helariutta, Y, Elomaa, P, Kotilainen, M, Kilpeläinen, I, Proksch, P, Teeri, TH, Schröder, J (1998) New pathways to polyketides in plants. Nature 396: 387390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eibl, R and Eibl, D (2002) Bioreactors for plant cell and tissue cultures In: Oksman-Caldentey, K-M and Barz, WH (eds) Plant Biotechnology and Transgenic Plants. New York: Marcel Dekker, pp. 163199Google Scholar
Farnsworth, NR (1988) Screening plants for new medicines. In Wilson, EO (ed.) Biodiversity. Washington, DC: National Academy Press 8397Google Scholar
Firn, RD (2003) Bioprospecting—why is it so unrewarding?. Biodiversity and Conservation 12: 207216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, C (2004) Regime change—plant genetic resources in international law. Outlook in Agriculture 33: 714.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gepts, P (2004) Who owns biodiversity, and how should the owners be compensated? Plant Physiology 134: 12951307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goossens, A, Häkkinen, ST, Laakso, I, Seppänen-Laakso, T, Biondi, S De, Sutter, V, Lammertyn, F, Nuutila, AM, Söderlund, H, Zabeau, M, Inzé, D and Oksman-Caldentey, K-M (2003) A functional genomics approach toward the understanding of secondary metabolism in plant cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 100: 85958600.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harborne, JB (1999) The comparative biochemistry of phytoalexin induction in plants. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 27: 335367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirai, MY, Yano, M, Goodenowe, DB, Kanaya, S, Kimura, T, Awazuhara, M, Arita, M, Fujiwara, T and Saito, K (2004) Integration of transcriptomics and metabolomics for understanding of global responses to nutritional stresses in Arabidopsis thaliana. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 101: 1020510210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ishihara, K, Hamada, H, Hirata, T and Nakajima, N (2003) Biotransformation using plant cultured cells. Journal of Molecular Catalysis B: Enzymatic 23: 145170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, CG and Firn, RD (1991) On the evolution of secondary plant chemical diversity. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 333: 273280.Google Scholar
Jouhikainen, K, Lindgren, L, Jokelainen, T, Hiltunen, R, Teeri, TH, Oksman-Caldentey, K-M (1999) Enhancement of scopolamine production in Hyoscyamus muticus L. hairy root cultures by genetic engineering. Planta 208: 545551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhlmann, J (1997) Drug research: from the idea to the product. International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics 35: 541552.Google ScholarPubMed
Kumar, P (2004) Valuation of medicinal plants for pharmaceutical uses. Current Science 86: 930937.Google Scholar
Laurila, J, Laakso, I, Valkonen, JPT, Hiltunen, R and Pehu, E (1996) Formation of parental-type and novel glycoalkaloids in somatic hybrids between Solanum brevidens and S. tuberosum. Plant Science 118: 145155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Little, DB and Croteau, RB (2002) Alteration of product formation by directed mutagenesis and truncation of the multiple-product sesquiterpene synthases δ-selinene synthase and γ-humulene synthase. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 402: 120135.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Macilwain, C (1998) When rhetoric hits reality in debate on bioprospecting. Nature 392: 535540.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
May, RM (1988) How many species are there on earth? Science 241: 14411449.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merson, J (2001) Bio-prospecting or bio-piracy: intellectual property rights and biodiversity in a colonial and postcolonial context. Osiris 15: 282296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, S (1993) High hopes hanging on ‘useless’ vine. New Scientist 137: 1213.Google Scholar
Mol, J, Grotewold, E and Koes, R (1998) How genes paint flowers and seeds. Trends in Plant Science 3: 212217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murch, SJ, Rupasinghe, HPV, Goodenowe, D and Saxena, PK ((2004)) A metabolomic analysis of medicinal diversity in Huang-qin (Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi) genotypes: discovery of novel compounds. Plant Cell Reports 23: 419425.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Niggeweg, R, Michael, AJ and Martin, C (2004) Engineering plants with increased levels of the antioxidant chlorogenic acid. Nature Biotechnology 22: 746754.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oksman-Caldentey, K-M and Inzé, D (2004) Plant cell factories in the post-genomic era: new ways to produce designer secondary metabolites. Trends in Plant Science 9: 433440.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oksman-Caldentey, K-M, Inzé, D and Orešič, M (2004) Connecting genes to metabolites by a systems biology approach. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 101: 99499950.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramachandra, SR and Ravishankar, GA (2002) Plant cell cultures: chemical factories of secondary metabolites. Biotechnology Advances 20: 101153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raskin, I, Ribnicky, DM, Komarnytsky, S, Ilic, N, Poulev, A, Borisjuk, N, Brinker, A, Moreno, DA, Ripoll, C, Yakoby, N, O'Neal, JM, Cornwell, T, Pastor, I and Fridlender, B (2002) Plants and human health in the twenty-first century. Trends in Biotechnology 20: 522531.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rates, SMK (2001) Plants as source of drugs. Toxicon 39: 603613.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ravishankar, GA and Ramachandra, RS (2000) Biotechnological production of phyto-pharmaceuticals. Journal of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics 4: 73102.Google Scholar
Reeves, CD (2003) The enzymology of combinatorial biosynthesis. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology 23: 95147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ritterhaus, E, Ulrich, J and Westphal, K (1990) Large-scale production of plant-cell cultures. International Association of Plant Tissue Culture Newsletter 61: 210.Google Scholar
Rondon, MR, August, PR, Bettermann, AD, Brady, SF, Grossman, TH, Liles, MR, Loiacono, KA, Lynch, BA, MacNeil, IA, Minor, C, Tiong, CL, Gilman, M, Osburne, MS, Clardy, J, Handelsman, J and Goodman, RM (2000) Cloning the soil metagenome: a strategy for accessing the genetic and functional diversity of uncultured microorganisms. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 66: 25412547.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rose, JKC, Bashir, S, Giovannoni, JJ, Jahn, MM and Saravanan, RS (2004) Tackling the plant proteome: practical approaches, hurdles and experimental tools. The Plant Journal 39: 715733.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosevear, A (1984) Putting a bit of color into the subject. Trends in Biotechnology 2: 145146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shu, Y-Z (1998) Recent natural products based drug development: a pharmaceutical industry perspective. Journal of Natural Products 61: 10531071.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Staunton, J and Wilkinson, B (2001) Combinatorial biosynthesis of polyketides and nonribosomal peptides. Current Opinion in Chemical Biology 5: 159164.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stecher, G, Huck, CW, Stöggl, WM and Bonn, GK (2003) Phytoanalysis: a challenge in phytomics. Trends in Analytical Chemistry 22: 114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, SN (2004) Plant genetic resources and the law. Past, present and future. Plant Physiology 135: 1015.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sweetlove, LJ, Last, RL and Fernie, AR (2003) Predictive metabolic engineering: a goal for systems biology. Plant Physiology 132: 420425.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tabata, M and Fujita, Y (1985) Production of shikonin by plant cell cultures. In Zaitlin, M, Day, P and Hollaender, A (eds) Biotechnology in Plant Science. Orlando, FL Academic Press pp. 207218CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trossat, C, Rathinasabapathi, B, Weretilnyk, EA, Shen, T-L, Huang, Z-H, Gage, DA and Hanson, AD (1998) Salinity promotes accumulation of 3-dimethylsulfoniopropionate and its precursor S-methylmethionine in chloroplast. Plant Physiology 116: 165171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tulp, M and Bohlin, L (2002) Functional versus chemical diversity: is biodiversity important for drug discovery?. Trends in Pharmaceutical Sciences 23: 225231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verpoorte, R (1998) Exploration of nature's chemodiversity: the role of secondary metabolites in drug development. Drug Discovery Today 3: 232238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, EO (1988) Biodiversity. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar