Genetic Aspects of Floral Fragrance in Plants.

It is generally assumed that compounds are emitted from flowers in order to attract and guide pollinators. Due tothe invisibility and the highly variable nature of floral scent, no efficient and reliable methods to screen for genetic variationhave been developed. Moreover, no convenient plant model systems are available for flower scent studies. In the past decade,several floral fragrancerelated genes have been cloned; the biosynthesis and metabolic engineering of floral volatiles havebeen studied with the development of biotechnology. This review summarizes the reported floral fragrancerelated genes andthe biosynthesis of floral scent compounds, introduces the origin of new modification enzymes for flower scent, comparesdifferent methods for floral fragrancerelated gene cloning, and discusses the metabolic engineering of floral scent. Finally,the perspectives and prospects of research on floral fragrance are presented.