The family of terpene synthases in plants: a mid‐size family of genes for specialized metabolism that is highly diversified throughout the kingdom

Some plant terpenes such as sterols and carotenes are part of primary metabolism and found essentially in all plants. However, the majority of the terpenes found in plants are classified as 'secondary' compounds, those chemicals whose synthesis has evolved in plants as a result of selection for increased fitness via better adaptation to the local ecological niche of each species. Thousands of such terpenes have been found in the plant kingdom, but each species is capable of synthesizing only a small fraction of this total. In plants, a family of terpene synthases (TPSs) is responsible for the synthesis of the various terpene molecules from two isomeric 5-carbon precursor 'building blocks', leading to 5-carbon…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 0604336, DBI-0604336
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: DE-FG02-, FG02-08ER64667, DE-FG02
• UD
  U.S. Department of Agriculture
• GC
  Genome Canada
• GB
  Genome British Columbia
• M
  Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
• NI
  National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• NS
  Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
• BA
  Biological and Environmental Research