Curtis, W. R.; Merritt, C.D.; Singh, G.; Chappell, J.
Lessons learned from sesquiterpene synthesis: Implications to genetic engineering of secondary metabolism in plants
ACS National Meeting, Anaheim, CA, March 22, 1999.

Abstract (Paper 22)::
We have been studying the regulation and control of the sesquiterpene phytoalexin pathway as a model for understanding secondary metabolite production in plants. This pathway is: induced by fungal elicitors, coordinately regulated with competing pathways, product feedback inhibited and controlled by a complex interaction of signal transduction messengers. Most recently we have fused the promoter of the inducible branch-point enzyme sesquiterpene cyclase to the GUS and green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter genes to understand spatial localization of gene regulation. The general implications of these studies to genetic engineering of secondary metabolism in plants will be discussed.