Isoprenoids comprise an astonishingly diverse group of metabolites with numerous potential and actual applications in medicine, agriculture and the chemical industry. Generation of efficient platforms producing isoprenoids is a target of numerous laboratories. Such efforts are generally enhanced if the native biosynthetic routes can be identified, and if the regulatory mechanisms responsible for the biosynthesis of the compound(s) of interest can be determined.

In this review a critical summary of the techniques applied to establish the contribution of the two alternative routes of isoprenoid production operating in plant cells, the mevalonate and methylerythritol pathways, with a focus on their co-operation (cross-talk) is presented. Special attention has been paid to methodological aspects of the referred studies, in order to give the reader a deeper understanding for the nuances of these powerful techniques. This review has been designed as an organized toolbox, which might offer the researchers comments useful both for project design and for interpretation of results obtained.

类异戊二烯包括令人惊讶的各种代谢物，在医学，农业和化学工业中具有许多潜在的和实际的应用。产生可产生类异戊二烯的有效平台是许多实验室的目标。如果可以确定天然的生物合成途径，并且可以确定负责目标化合物生物合成的调节机制，则通常会加大这种努力。

在这篇综述中，对用于确定在植物细胞中运作的类异戊二烯生产的两种替代途径（甲羟戊酸和甲基赤藓糖醇途径）的贡献的技术进行了总结，并重点介绍了它们的合作（串扰）。为了使读者对这些强大技术的细微差别有更深入的了解，已经特别注意了所引用研究的方法论方面。这篇评论被设计为一个有组织的工具箱，可能为研究人员提供评论，这些评论对于项目设计和解释所获得的结果均有用。