ABSTRACT
Alkaloids are one of the major groups of secondary metabolites and have provided several leads for the development of modern drugs. They comprise pharmacologically active, nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds and their general classication is based on their chemical structures, with terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) being one of the most well characterized classes of alkaloids. The Catharanthus roseus plant produces more than 130 TIAs and no other single plant species is reported to produce such a wide array of complex alkaloids. It is also one of the most extensively investigated medicinal plants. It derives its signicance particularly from its expensive and scarce shoot-specic bisindole alkaloids, vinblastine and vincristine, which are established anticancer agents and perennially in high demand. To date, the plant remains the most important source of these bisindole alkaloids (produced in planta by the condensation of monomeric TIAs, vindoline, and catharanthine) despite some reports of their total synthesis. The bisindole alkaloids and vindoline are produced only in the aerial green parts of the plant and require differentiated plant tissue for biosynthesis, whereas catharanthine is produced throughout the plant and could also be produced in undifferentiated cell cultures. As a consequence of decades of research on the chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology of TIA biosynthesis and the recent application of omics technologies, C. roseus has emerged as a model nonmodel plant species to study plant alkaloidomics.
