植物表皮蜡质及相关基因研究进展

Research progress of plant cuticular wax and related genes

植物表皮蜡质是覆盖在所有陆生植物与空气接触部位的一层疏水性的保护屏障,具有调节植物非气孔性失水、抵抗紫外线伤害、维持植物表面的清洁、抵御病虫害侵袭等功能,对植物的生长发育以及适应外界环境起到了非常重要的作用。植物表皮蜡质分为内表皮蜡质和外表皮蜡质,内表皮蜡质一般为无定型状态,外表皮蜡质多自我组装成各种形态的蜡质晶体。植物表皮蜡质成分复杂,一般由脂肪族化合物包括脂肪酸、烷烃、醛、醇、酮、酯以及萜类和一些小分子次级代谢物组成。目前关于植物表皮蜡质合成及运输机理的研究取得了重要的进展。研究者们从植物突变体中鉴定出了大量蜡质合成、运输及调控相关基因,完善了植物蜡质合成调控网络,为后续研究奠定了坚实的基础。本文对近年来植物表皮蜡质的合成与运输途径及其相关基因的研究进行了综述,并对植物蜡质研究的前景进行探讨与展望。

Plant cuticular wax is a hydrophobic barrier that covers the aerial surfaces of all terrestrial plants. It has the function of regulating the plant non-stomatal water loss, protecting against UV damage, maintaining the plant surface clean, resistance to insects and pathogens, and so on. It plays an important role in plant growth and adaptation to environment. Plant cuticular wax is divided into intracuticular wax and epicuticular wax, the intracuticular wax is generally amorphous state, and the epicuticular wax is always self-assembled into various forms of wax crystal. The chemical composition of plant cuticular wax is complex, and it is generally composed of aliphatic compounds including fatty acids, alkanes, aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, esters, terpenes and small molecular secondary metabolites. At present, it has made great progress about plant cuticular wax synthesis and transport mechanism. Researchers identified a large number of wax synthesis, transport and regulation related genes from the mutant plants, and improved the plant wax synthesis regulatory networks, which laid a solid foundation for further research. This paper reviewed the recent research progress about the plant wax synthesis and export pathways. The future of the wax-related research was also discussed and prospected in this paper.