Synthetic biology of plant natural products: From pathway elucidation to engineered biosynthesis in plant cells

Abstract

Plant natural products (PNPs) are the main sources of drugs, food additives, and new biofuels and have become a hotspot in synthetic biology. In the past two decades, the engineered biosynthesis of many PNPs has been achieved through the construction of microbial cell factories. Alongside the rapid development of plant physiology, genetics, and plant genetic modification techniques, hosts have now expanded from single-celled microbes to complex plant systems. Plant synthetic biology is an emerging field that combines engineering principles with plant biology. In this review, we introduce recent advances in the biosynthetic pathway elucidation of PNPs and summarize the progress of engineered PNP biosynthesis in plant cells. Furthermore, a future vision of plant synthetic biology is proposed. Although we are still a long way from overcoming all the bottlenecks in plant synthetic biology, the ascent of this field is expected to provide a huge opportunity for future agriculture and industry.

Ethnobotanical Uses, Phytochemical Composition, Biosynthesis, and Pharmacological Activities of Carpesium abrotanoides L. (Asteraceae)

“…Some of the reported constituents are either not tested or possessed no notable effectiveness in the evaluated activities; therefore, an in silico screening for other potential bioactivities could be a clearly goal for future research studies. Most of the natural metabolites are frequently produced by the plants in small amounts; therefore, securing sufficient quantities of them for further clinical applications has become a persisting concern [83]. The technological progress, including genome sequencing and development of molecular biology and genetic techniques engineer the biosynthesis of many valuable natural metabolites [84].…”

“…The fruits n-BuOH, EtOAc, and aqueous fractions had no influence on the RAW 264.7 murine macrophage cell viability (IC 50 > 100 µg/mL), whereas the CHCl 3 (conc. 50 µg/mL, IC 50 83.65 µg/mL) and hexane-fraction (Conc. > 6.25 µg/mL, IC 50 16.14 µg/mL) displayed cytotoxic potential on these cells [20].…”

Synthetic hybrid speciation: a resource for breeding novel lineages for secondary metabolites

“…In the past two decades, the engineered biosynthesis of many plant natural products have been achieved through the construction of microbial cell factories [35]. Alternatively, it has been shown that plant pathways can be modified in the native producer with a variety of metabolic engineering approaches [23].…”

Plant Metabolic Engineering by Multigene Stacking: Synthesis of Diverse Mogrosides

“…Alternatively, major extraordinary progress in synthetic biology has provided tremendous possibility for the mogrosides production in heterologous hosts. Heterologous biosynthesis of natural products in microbial or plant chassis is one of the research hotspots in the field of synthetic biology, which greatly reduces the natural resource damage, environmental pollution and economic benefits [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Researchers have published Siraitia grosvenorii genome data and mogrosides biosynthesis pathway has been investigated, which offers a solid theoretical basis for the heterologous production of mogrosides [ 15 , 20 ].…”