Biosynthetic pathways glucosinolate

Figure 13.2 Biosynthetic pathways of (A) cyanogenic glucosides and (B) glucosinolates. The CYP79s are assumed to catalyze the same reaction in both pathways. It is not known whether the oxime is oxidized to an aci-nitro compound or a nitrile oxide in the glucosinolate pathway.

S. alba has been used as a model plant for biochemical studies of the oxime-metabolizing enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of glucosinolates.33 The major... 

Figure 3. Biosynthetic pathway to glucosinolates. Starred compounds have been demonstrated as glucosinolate precursors.

Plants are the best organic chemists in nature as evidenced by their ability to synthesize all necessary carbon compounds with carbon dioxide as the sole carbon source and by their ability to synthesize a vast number of natural products. Currently, structures for more than 100,000 different natural products isolated from plants are known, and with time this number will increase into millions. Natural products are classified as phytoanticipins, phytoalexins, and/or attractants. In the last decade, the majority of the biosynthetic pathways responsible for natural product synthesis have been shown to include P450s as key enzymes. Such pathways include the biosynthetic pathways for cyanogenic glucosides, glucosinolates, isoflavonoids, and... 

Figure 12.8. The biosynthetic pathway for glucosinolate production. Reprinted with permission from Wittstock and Halkier (2002) .

Figure 2.3 Major Stages of the Glucosinolate Biosynthetic Pathway.

There have been major advances in the imderstanding of glucosinolate biosynthesis over the last decade through the use of the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana that has enabled a molecular genetic dissection of the biosynthetic pathway. This has resolved several aspects of the biochemistry of glucosinolates that had proved intractable via a... 

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