Biosynthesis of strychnine elucidated

Researchers from Jena show how the poison nut tree forms strychnine. Poison nut tree Strychnos nux-vomica © Danny Kessler, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology - A research team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena disclosed the complete biosynthetic pathway for the formation of strychnine in the plant species Strychnos nux-vomica (poison nut). The researchers identified all genes involved in the biosynthesis of strychnine and other metabolites and expressed them in the model plant Nicotiana benthamiana . This enabled them to show that these extremely complex and pharmacologically important molecules can be synthesized using "metabolic engineering" methods. Many of us know strychnine from crime reports, novels or films. Agatha Christie had several of her victims die of strychnine poisoning. She described what is probably the best-known fictional murder case involving the highly toxic alkaloid used as rat poison in her first novel "The Mysterious Affair at Styles".