New and emerging concepts in the evolution and function of plant biosynthetic gene clusters

Plants are a rich source of diverse chemicals. Metabolic diversification is likely a reflection of adaptation to particular environmental niches because many of these compounds are known to have important ecological functions. The ever-growing number of reported examples of plant biosynthetic gene clusters opens up intriguing questions about how and why the genes for particular natural product pathways are physically clustered in plant genomes and about the forces that shape genome architecture. This review highlights recent advances that shed new light on this area, with particular emphasis on cluster evolution.