Terpenes are a large and diverse class of natural hydrocarbons produced primarily by plants, comprising over 30,000 compounds that function as essential building blocks in plant metabolism. In plant science, terpenes are crucial mediators of ecological interactions and plant defense mechanisms, influencing how plants interact with their environment and protect themselves from herbivores and pathogens. Their abundance and chemical diversity make terpenes fundamental to understanding plant physiology, chemical ecology, and the evolutionary relationships between plants and other organisms.
Soil and sewage bacteria can fully break down (-)-Ambrox, a tough ring-shaped terpene compound from whale ambergris that's also used in perfumery. Researchers mapped the step-by-step pathway, which offers a rare look at how microbes digest complex plant-type terpenes.
1
Two Sphingomonas strains isolated from activated sewage sludge fully mineralized (-)-Ambrox, and the metabolic route was conserved between them.
2
Degradation begins with oxidation of the C(4)-methyl group, then hydroxylation at C(5), which lets ring A open through a retro-aldol reaction; beta-oxidation then yields a C11 metabolite and finally a C6 delta-lactone.
3
Only natural (-)-Ambrox and related labdanoids were degraded, not enantiomers or epimers, and the pathway genes are scattered across the genome rather than clustered.
mail
Weekly plant science — one email, Saturdays.
Check your inbox to confirm — link expires in 24 hours.
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many signup attempts from your network. Try again in an hour, or email hello@plant.news.
