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Description: The natural product family of tropane alkaloids, includes scopolamine and hyoscyamine, which are plant secondary metabolites that mainly occur in the family of Solanaceae. Scopolamine is an important bulk compound in the semi-synthesis of drugs for clinical medicines like Buscopan® or Spiriva®. Tropane alkaloids are mainly obtained via extraction from field-grown Duboisia hybrids. Demand for Scopolamine based drugs is expected to increase in the future. A biotechnological process may help to compensate fluctuations in crop yield of the medicinal plants. Reconstruction of a heterologous pathway requires fundamental understanding of the merging pathways, the respective biosynthetic genes, their transcription and regulation. Here we focus on: I) Analysis of the principal pathway and most important enzymes for their expression and biochemical profile. II) Construction of a cDNA library from cytosolic root cells of Duboisia species. III) Analysis of metabolic profiles of Duboisia species. IV) In silico analysis of a heterologous production system utilizing metabolic network modelling.