Monoterpenoid indole alkaloids biosynthesis and its regulation in Catharanthus roseus: a literature review from genes to metabolites

As the only source for the low-abundance antitumor agents vinblastine and vincristine, Catharanthus roseus is highly valued and has been studied extensively as a model for medicinal plants improvement. The biosynthesis of these monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIAs) is a complex multistep enzymatic network that is tightly regulated by developmental and environmental factors. Here we review the knowledge achieved in the past 30 years of the MIA pathway in C. roseus, from genetic to metabolic aspects. Two early precursor pathways and a late mono-/bis-indole alkaloid pathway have been largely elucidated and established, as well as their intercellular and subcellular compartmentation. Many genes encoding constitutive structural biosynthetic enzymes, transcription factors, and transporters involved in these pathways have been cloned, characterized and applied in metabolic engineering strategies to improve the MIA production. However, genetic modification in the pathway in C. roseus resulted in complicated changes of both secondary and primary metabolism, affecting not only the MIA pathway but also other pathways. Research at metabolic level is required to increase the knowledge on the genetic regulation of the whole metabolic network connected to the MIA biosynthesis. Nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomics (metabolic profiling, fingerprinting and flux analyses) in combination with other “omics” have been implemented in studies of C. roseus for pathway elucidation, including among others, understanding stress response, cross talk between pathways, and diversion of carbon fluxes, with the aim to fully unravel the MIA biosynthesis, its regulation and the function of the alkaloids in the plant from a systems biology point of view.