image: These are Tasmanian poppy fields. Poppies are grown commercially for the production of pharmaceuticals ranging from the analgesics, morphine and codeine, to the cough suppressant and anti-tumor agent, noscapine. Despite noscapine being described almost 200 years ago, the genes involved in its synthesis have not to date been identified. Winzer et al. now report on a ten-gene cluster responsible for the production of noscapine in opium poppy. This discovery should enable improvement in commercial production of noscapine and related bioactive alkaloid molecules. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the May 31, 2012, issue of Science Express, published by AAAS. The paper, by T. Winzer at the University of York in York, UK, and colleagues was titled, "A Papaver somniferum Ten Gene Cluster for Synthesis of the Anticancer Alkaloid Noscapine." view more
Credit: Photo by Carol Walker