工程化酿酒酵母合成植物三萜类化合物

三萜类化合物如甘草次酸、皂苷等是许多药物在细胞内发挥药理活性的主要存在形式,可作为药物的主要活性成分,有些还可作为甜味剂等。但是萜类化合物在天然植株中含量很低,不能很好地对其开发和利用。随着萜类物质代谢中关键酶的发现,整个萜类代谢途径变得清晰。近年来合成生物学快速发展,为利用微生物发酵生产三萜化合物奠定了基础。综述了酿酒酵母中三萜化合物的合成途径及在此途径中起重要作用的细胞色素单氧化酶的研究进展。

Engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae for biosynthesis of plant triterpenoids

Triterpenoids (such as glycyrrhetinic acid, saponin ) is the main existence form of many drugs that play a pharmacological activities within the cells. Except used as the main active ingredients of drugs, some of them also can be used as a sweetener. But the amount of triterpenoids in plant (the origin source) is very low, which restrict its development and utilization. With the discovery of key enzymes in terpenoids metabolism, the whole metabolic pathway of terpenoids is clear increasingly. In recent years, the rapid development of synthetic biology lays a solid foundation for triterpenoids production by microbial fermentation. This paper reviews the triterpenoids biosynthesis pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (CYP450) which plays an important role in the whole pathway.