摘要
The aerial parts of land plants are covered with cuticu- lar waxes that limit non-stomatal water loss and gaseous exchanges, and protect plants from ultraviolet radiation and pathogen attacks. They are composed of very-long-chain fatty acids （VLCFAs; C20 to C34） in addition to their deriva-tives, aldehydes, alkanes, primary and secondary alcohols, and wax esters. Due to their physical properties, such as solid-ity at room temperature and a translucency ranging from transparent to opaque, plant waxes have been used as raw materials in the production of cosmetics, detergents, plas-tics, soaps, paints, drugs, lubricants, and high-value renew-able fuels. Many genes involved in cuticular wax biosynthesis and export have been characterized by forward and reverse genetic approaches as well as by stem epidermis transcrip-tome analysis. The regulatory mechanisms of cuticular wax biosynthesis have been reported at the transcriptional, post- transcriptional, and translational levels. Recent advances in cuticular wax biosynthesis and its regulation are reviewed in this paper.
The aerial parts of land plants are covered with cuticu- lar waxes that limit non-stomatal water loss and gaseous exchanges, and protect plants from ultraviolet radiation and pathogen attacks. They are composed of very-long-chain fatty acids （VLCFAs; C20 to C34） in addition to their deriva-tives, aldehydes, alkanes, primary and secondary alcohols, and wax esters. Due to their physical properties, such as solid-ity at room temperature and a translucency ranging from transparent to opaque, plant waxes have been used as raw materials in the production of cosmetics, detergents, plas-tics, soaps, paints, drugs, lubricants, and high-value renew-able fuels. Many genes involved in cuticular wax biosynthesis and export have been characterized by forward and reverse genetic approaches as well as by stem epidermis transcrip-tome analysis. The regulatory mechanisms of cuticular wax biosynthesis have been reported at the transcriptional, post- transcriptional, and translational levels. Recent advances in cuticular wax biosynthesis and its regulation are reviewed in this paper.
