Progress in the Genetic Engineering of the Pyridine and Tropane Alkaloid Biosynthetic Pathways of Solanaceous Plants

  • Richard J. Robins
  • Nicholas J. Walton
  • Adrian J. Parr
  • E. Lindsay H. Aird
  • Michael J. C. Rhodes
  • John D. Hamill
Chapter
Part of the Recent Advances in Phytochemistry book series (RAPT, volume 28)

Abstract

It has long been an objective to increase or decrease the yield of plant-derived secondary products. Over the last few hundred years this has been achieved in a few examples by selective breeding within the natural germplasm pool. In the 1960s, however, the potential of using plant cell in vitro cultures to enhance variation was developed, and since then substantial effort has been put into the empirical manipulation of such cultures to yield high levels of metabolites.1 This work largely entailed varying the culture conditions and examining the effects on the products of interest.2 Less common, but much more effective, were selection procedures that targeted specifically the desired product.3 Nevertheless, success has been very limited.

Keywords

Root Culture Hairy Root Culture Tropane Alkaloid Alkaloid Production Datura Stramonium 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1994

Authors and Affiliations

  • Richard J. Robins
    • 1
  • Nicholas J. Walton
    • 1
  • Adrian J. Parr
    • 1
  • E. Lindsay H. Aird
    • 1
  • Michael J. C. Rhodes
    • 1
  • John D. Hamill
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Genetics and MicrobiologyInstitute of Food ResearchColney, NorwichUK
  2. 2.Department of Genetics and Developmental BiologyMonash UniversityClayton, MelbourneAustralia

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