The anti-neoplastic herb, Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don (Apocynaceae),
is a high-value, low-volume medicinal herb, which is the focus of global attention in
view of being the source of terpenoid indole alkaloids (MIAs). MIAs are one of the
largest classes of phyto-alkaloids, and many of them are sources of important
pharmaceutical products. C. roseus is known to harbour more than 130 different
bioactive MIAs that make it an interesting plant, finding use in several traditional and
modern medical therapies. The remarkable presence of cellular and subcellular
compartmentations for the synthesis and storage of MIAs allows the accumulation of
these medicinally important MIAs in leaves (viz. vindoline, catharanthine, vinblastine,
vincristine) and stem and roots (viz. tabersonine, ajmalicine, reserpine, serpentine,
vindoline, catharanthine, horhammericine, leurosine, lochnerine). Out of them, any
medicinally active MIAs found in Catharanthus roseus, vinblastine and vincristine are
special since they possess anticancerous properties, along with ajmalicine and
serpentine, which possess antihypertensive properties. However, the low plant yield
and nonavailability of alternative chemical synthesis methods have increased their
demand and market cost. In the research era of more than three decades, a plethora of
studies have been carried out on C. roseus to explore, understand, explain, improve and
enhance the Homo/Heterologous biosynthesis of MIAs. Metabolic engineering (ME)
and synthetic biology are two powerful tools that have played and contributed majorly
to MIAs studies. This chapter concentrates mainly on the efforts made through
metabolic engineering and synthetic biology of MIAs in plant and microbial factories
in the last three decades.
Keywords: Catharanthus roseus, Monoterpenoid indole alkaloids, Metabolic engineering, Synthetic biology.
