Molecular activities, biosynthesis and evolution of XXXX .

@entity858 @entity3857 @entity43139 @entity37161 @entity563 @entity56107
@entity3857 are bioactive compounds generally considered to be produced by plants to counteract pathogens and herbivores. Besides their role in plant defense, @entity3857 are of growing interest for drug research as they are active constituents of several folk medicines and provide valuable pharmacological properties. Accordingly, much effort has been put into unraveling the modes of action of @entity3857 , as well as in exploration of their potential for industrial processes and pharmacology. However, the exploitation of @entity3857 for bioengineering crop plants with improved resistances against pests as well as circumvention of laborious and uneconomical extraction procedures for industrial production from plants is hampered by the lack of knowledge and availability of genes in @entity3857 biosynthesis. Although the ability to produce @entity3857 is rather widespread among plants, a complete synthetic pathway has not been elucidated in any single species. Current conceptions consider @entity3857 to be derived from intermediates of the @entity37161 pathway, and predominantly enzymes belonging to the multigene families of @entity56107 cyclases (OSCs), cytochromes P450 (P450s) and family 1 @entity858 -glycosyltransferases (UGTs) are thought to be involved in their biosynthesis. Formation of unique structural features involves additional biosynthetical enzymes of diverse phylogenetic background. As an example of this, a @entity563 carboxypeptidase-like acyltransferase (SCPL) was recently found to be involved in synthesis of @entity43139 in oats. However, the total number of identified genes in @entity3857 biosynthesis remains low as the complexity and diversity of these multigene families impede gene discovery based on sequence analysis and phylogeny. This review summarizes current knowledge of @entity43139 biosynthesis in plants, molecular activities, evolutionary aspects and perspectives for further gene discovery.
