Research Perspective on Biological Science Vol. 9

Medicinal plants produce a wide array of bioactive compounds with significant pharmaceutical value. Plant transcription factors (TFs) play a pivotal role in regulating the biosynthesis of these compounds. The chapter provides an overview of the key TF families, molecular mechanisms of TF mediated regulation, TF-DNA interactions, TF-TF interactions, regulatory networks and recent advances in TF based approaches for enhancing the production of valuable bioactive compounds in medicinal plants. The complex regulatory networks controlling active compound biosynthesis were considered while shedding light on novel strategies for improving the yield and quality of plant-derived products. Recent research in the field of molecular engineering using transcription factors in medicinal plants, with the examples included in the chapter, may encourage the budding molecular biologist to adapt new technologies and tools for the enhanced biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. The chapter will provide a synopsis of scientific tools and techniques which can be exploited in the field of tissue culture and secondary metabolite production. Optimisation and enhancement of the pharmacologically relevant bioactive compound production can be achieved through the administration of specific transcriptional regulation factors. The knowledge of the biosynthetic pathway of pharmaceutically significant therapeutics can be applied to the invention of novel bioreactors in the biopharma industry.