Madagascar periwinkle cell suspension culture displaying alkaloid production.

Untapped Potential of Plant Alkaloids

Plants produce an enormous number of complex natural products such as vinblastine, morphine and taxol that are used clinically. Despite the importance of these compounds, many plant natural product pathways remain poorly understood due to the challenges associated with working with higher plants.

A major focus in our group is to use plants, plant cell culture and plant associated microorganisms to produce novel product structures, using molecular biology, biochemistry and synthetic organic chemistry to create transgenic plants and plant tissue capable of producing “unnatural products”.

Mechanistic Elucidation

Many of the biochemical transformations in alkaloid biosynthesis are poorly understood. Another focus of our group is elucidate and understand the chemistry of these enzymatic transformations.

Alkaloid producing plants undergoing transformation with a reengineered biosynthetic enzyme.

Crystal structure of an alkaloid biosynthetic enzyme (obtained by Joachim Stockigt’s group) used to elucidate the chemical mechanism of this enzyme, which catalyzes a Pictet Spengler reaction.

In the News...

Vinblastine biosynthesis in C. roseus (Madagascar periwinkle), with the uncharacterized enzymatic steps highlighted.