Plants produce a wide variety of specialized metabolites that mediate interactions between plants and other organisms or the environment. Specialized metabolic pathways are often unique to a subset of plant species and augment the core metabolic pathways that are nearly universal to all plants. In addition to phylogenetic restriction, specialized metabolic pathways also exhibit compartmentalization within a plant, either at the tissue or cell type level. Many plants possess secretory glandular trichomes, structures consisting of one or a few cells that protrude from the surfaces of aboveground plant tissues like leaves, stems, and flowers. These trichomes accumulate or secrete specialized metabolites. This work describes the biochemical pathways behind two classes of trichome-localized specialized metabolites: pyrethrins and acylsugars. Metabolic engineering of the pyrethrin pathway in plant hosts and geographic variation of acylsugar phenotypes are also discussed.
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