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Strategies for the genetic modification of the medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don

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Abstract

This review describes the different plant transformation techniques, including guided infection with Agrobacterium tumefaciens and A. rhizogenes, particle bombardment and protoplast fusion, that have been attempted to create transgenic Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don cell cultures, hairy roots and whole plants. The review also focuses on the different approaches used to manipulate and improve secondary metabolite yields in various culture systems, with special attention to the most relevant results achieved. Finally, under future perspectives, the authors propose several approaches which would likely be implemented with this species, to try to boost the accumulation of the anti-tumour agents, vinblastine and vincristine. Some comments on how the future of the genetic manipulation of medicinal plants may proceed aiming at achieving higher secondary metabolite yields are also given.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. A. Sadowska for the invitation to contribute to this special issue on Catharanthus roseus research. RZ acknowledges funding from Ramón y Cajal program and SAF203-04-200-CO2-02 (Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology) and Instituto Canario de Investigación del Cáncer.

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  1. Instituto Universitario de Bio-Orgánica, A.G. González, University of La Laguna, Av. Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez 2, 38206, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

    Rafael Zárate

  2. Instituto Canario de Investigación del Cáncer, La Candelaria Hospital, 38010, Tenerife, Spain

    Rafael Zárate

  3. Department of Pharmacognosy, Section of Metabolomics, Institute of Biology Leiden, University of Leiden, P.O. Box 9502, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Robert Verpoorte

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  1. Rafael Zárate
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Zárate, R., Verpoorte, R. Strategies for the genetic modification of the medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don. Phytochem Rev 6, 475–491 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11101-006-9020-6

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