Phenylpropanoid metabolism is one of the most important metabolisms in plants, yielding more than 8,000 metabolites contributing to plant development and plant-environment interplay. Phenylpropanoid metabolism materialized during the evolution of early freshwater algae that were initiating terrestrialization and land plants have evolved multiple branches of this pathway, which give rise to metabolites including lignin, flavonoids, lignans, phenylpropanoid esters, hydroxycinnamic acid amides, and sporopollenin. Recent studies have revealed that many factors participate in the regulation of phenylpropanoid metabolism, and modulate phenylpropanoid homeostasis when plants undergo successive developmental processes and are subjected to stressful environments. In this review, we summarize recent progress on elucidating the contribution of phenylpropanoid metabolism to the coordination of plant development and plant-environment interaction, and metabolic flux redirection among diverse metabolic routes. In addition, our review focuses on the regulation of phenylpropanoid metabolism at the transcriptional, post-transcriptional, post-translational, and epigenetic levels, and in response to phytohormones and biotic and abiotic stresses.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jipb.13054

Contribution of phenylpropanoid metabolism to plant development and plant-environment interactions.

Phenylpropanoids are a large class of plant secondary metabolites derived from aromatic amino acids phenylalanine in most plants or tyrosine in partial monocots. It mainly includes flavonoids, mono...

Biosynthesis and Regulation of Phenylpropanoids in Plants

During their evolution, plants have acquired the ability to produce a huge variety of compounds. Unlike the specialized metabolites that accumulate in limited numbers of species, flavonoids are widely distributed in the plant kingdom. Therefore, a detailed analysis of flavonoid metabolism in genomics and metabolomics is an ideal way to investigate how plants have developed their unique metabolic pathways during the process of evolution. More comprehensive and precise metabolite profiling integrated with genomic information are helpful to emerge unexpected gene functions and/or pathways. The distribution of flavonoids and their biosynthetic genes in the plant kingdom suggests that flavonoid biosynthetic pathways evolved through a series of steps. The enzymes that form the flavonoid scaffold structures probably first appeared by recruitment of enzymes from primary metabolic pathways, and later, enzymes that belong to superfamilies such as 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, cytochrome P450, and short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase modified and varied the structures. It is widely accepted that the first two enzymes in flavonoid biosynthesis, chalcone synthase, and chalcone isomerase, were derived from common ancestors with enzymes in lipid metabolism. Later enzymes acquired their function by gene duplication and the subsequent acquisition of new functions. In this review, we describe the recent progress in metabolomics technologies for flavonoids and the evolution of flavonoid skeleton biosynthetic enzymes to understand the complicate evolutionary traits of flavonoid metabolism in plant kingdom.

/pdf/the-origin-and-evolution-of-plant-flavonoid-metabolism-5ps61mk0xz.pdf

The Origin and Evolution of Plant Flavonoid Metabolism.

Flavones correspond to a flavonoid subgroup that is widely distributed in the plants, and which can be synthesized by different pathways, depending on whether they contain C- or O-glycosylation and hydroxylated B-ring. Flavones are emerging as very important specialized metabolites involved in plant signaling and defense, as well as key ingredients of the human diet, with significant health benefits. Here, we appraise flavone formation in plants, emphasizing the emerging theme that biosynthesis pathway determines flavone chemistry. Additionally, we briefly review the biological activities of flavones, both from the perspective of the functions that they play in biotic and abiotic plant interactions, as well as their roles as nutraceutical components of the human and animal diet.

Flavones: From Biosynthesis to Health Benefits

Plasmonic gold nanoparticles: Optical manipulation, imaging, drug delivery and therapy.

Cloning and functional characterization of a 4-coumarate CoA ligase from liverwort Plagiochasma appendiculatum

We review how the hyperspectral dark field analysis gives us quantitative insights into the manner that different nanoscale materials interact with their environment and how this relationship is directly expressed in an optical readout We engage classification tools to identify dominant spectral signatures within a scene or to qualitatively characterize nanoparticles individually or in populations based on their composition and morphology Moreover, we follow up the morphological evolution of nanoparticles over time and in different biological environments to better understand and establish a link between the observed nanoparticles' changes and cellular behaviors

https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/11/2/243/pdf

Hyperspectral-Enhanced Dark Field Microscopy for Single and Collective Nanoparticle Characterization in Biological Environments.

https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1016/j.febslet.2014.05.023

Functional characterization of a Plagiochasma appendiculatum flavone synthase I showing flavanone 2-hydroxylase activity

Functional characterization of a Mg(2+)-dependent O-methyltransferase with coumarin as preferred substrate from the liverwort Plagiochasma appendiculatum

Rui-Xue Xu

Papers

Cloning and functional characterization of a 4-coumarate CoA ligase from liverwort Plagiochasma appendiculatum

Hyperspectral-Enhanced Dark Field Microscopy for Single and Collective Nanoparticle Characterization in Biological Environments.

Functional characterization of a Plagiochasma appendiculatum flavone synthase I showing flavanone 2-hydroxylase activity

Functional characterization of a Mg(2+)-dependent O-methyltransferase with coumarin as preferred substrate from the liverwort Plagiochasma appendiculatum

Functional characterization of a plastidal cation-dependent O-methyltransferase from the liverwort Plagiochasma appendiculatum.