Phytochemical genomics of the Madagascar periwinkle: Unravelling the last twists of the alkaloid engine

Catharanthus roseus synthesizes monoterpene indole alkaloids via a long set of chemical reactions catalyzed by a complex enzymatic machinery. Recent studies have combined high throughput “omics” analyses with functional validation approaches to unravel unknown biosynthetic steps. This contribution expands the toolbox for alkaloid metabolic engineering into various metabolic platforms.