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Volatile terpenoids: multiple functions, biosynthesis, modulation and manipulation by genetic engineering

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Main conclusion

Terpenoids play several physiological and ecological functions in plant life through direct and indirect plant defenses and also in human society because of their enormous applications in the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetics industries. Through the aid of genetic engineering its role can by magnified to broad spectrum by improving genetic ability of crop plants, enhancing the aroma quality of fruits and flowers and the production of pharmaceutical terpenoids contents in medicinal plants.

Terpenoids are structurally diverse and the most abundant plant secondary metabolites, playing an important role in plant life through direct and indirect plant defenses, by attracting pollinators and through different interactions between the plants and their environment. Terpenoids are also significant because of their enormous applications in the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetics industries. Due to their broad distribution and functional versatility, efforts are being made to decode the biosynthetic pathways and comprehend the regulatory mechanisms of terpenoids. This review summarizes the recent advances in biosynthetic pathways, including the spatiotemporal, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms. Moreover, we discuss the multiple functions of the terpene synthase genes (TPS), their interaction with the surrounding environment and the use of genetic engineering for terpenoid production in model plants. Here, we also provide an overview of the significance of terpenoid metabolic engineering in crop protection, plant reproduction and plant metabolic engineering approaches for pharmaceutical terpenoids production and future scenarios in agriculture, which call for sustainable production platforms by improving different plant traits.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China to Yanping Fan (Grant nos. 30972026 and 31370694), a Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China to Yanping Fan (Grant no. 20134404110016), and a Specialized Major Project of the Production-Study-Research Collaborative Innovation of Guangzhou Science and Information Bureau to Yanping Fan (Grant no. 156100058). We would like to say thank you to Mr. Yiwei Zhou (College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture), Dr. Umair Ashraf and Dr. Rashid Azad (College of Agriculture) for their help in generating figures.

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Abbas, F., Ke, Y., Yu, R. et al. Volatile terpenoids: multiple functions, biosynthesis, modulation and manipulation by genetic engineering. Planta 246, 803–816 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-017-2749-x

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