About this Research Topic

Background

Plant enzymes are the major drivers of plant metabolism and their role in biosynthesis produces the chemodiversity we observe in plants. This research topic is dedicated to studies that advance our understanding of enzyme biochemistry in photosynthetic organisms and their roles in chemodiveristy.

Areas to be highlighted include the following

• Identification, cloning, and functional characterization of enzymes in model and non-model photosynthetic species

• Evolutionary divergence, selection, and duplication events relevant to plant/photosynthetic organism enzymes

• Enzyme substrate specificity tissues specific expression patterns and subcellular localizations that make for the uniqueness of enzyme activity

• Comparative studies of enzymes in overlapping or parallel pathways – structure

• Discovery of gene products with enzymatic activity leading to the novel discovery of metabolic pathways previously unknown

• Regulations of Enzyme activity and its relationship with plant stress and adaptive responses

• Engineering of enzymes for the development of valuable natural products

Keywords: Plant Enzymes, Substrate Specificity, Evolution, Metabolic Pathways, Engineering

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