Controlled hydroxylations of diterpenoids allow for plant chemical defense without autotoxicity

Abstract

Diterpenoids inhibit lipid biosynthesis Plants make a variety of molecules that serve to protect them against hungry insects. Li et al. analyzed the balance between plants defending themselves and plants poisoning themselves. In wild tobacco ( Nicotiana attenuata ), two cytochrome P450 enzymes work within the biosynthetic pathway of 17-hydroxygeranyllinalool diterpene glycosides to help prevent the accumulation of toxic diterpene derivatives. Those same diterpene derivatives are formed in an insect herbivore after ingestion and cause toxicity by inhibiting sphingolipid biosynthesis in both plant and insect. Science , this issue p. 255