Lu Xu, Huang Lijin, Scheller Henrik V, Keasling Jay D
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Traditional Chinese Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
J Exp Bot. 2023 Mar 13;74(5):1343-1357. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erac505.
Terpenoid glycosides have significant curative effects on many kinds of diseases. Most of these compounds are derived from medicinal plants. Glycosylation is a key step in the biosynthesis of medicinal terpenoids. In plants, UDP-dependent glycosyltransferases comprise a large family of enzymes that catalyze the transfer of sugars from donor to acceptor to form various bioactive glycosides. In recent years, numerous terpenoid UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) have been cloned and characterized in medicinal plants. We review the typical characteristics and evolution of terpenoid-related UGTs in plants and summarize the advances and research strategies of terpenoid UGTs in medicinal plants over the past 20 years. We provide a reference for the study of glycosylation of terpenoid skeletons and the biosynthetic pathways for medicinal terpenoids in plants.
萜类糖苷对多种疾病具有显著疗效。这些化合物大多源自药用植物。糖基化是药用萜类生物合成中的关键步骤。在植物中，依赖尿苷二磷酸（UDP）的糖基转移酶构成了一个庞大的酶家族，它们催化糖从供体转移至受体以形成各种生物活性糖苷。近年来，众多萜类UDP - 糖基转移酶（UGTs）已在药用植物中被克隆和鉴定。我们综述了植物中与萜类相关的UGTs的典型特征和进化，并总结了过去20年里药用植物中萜类UGTs的研究进展和策略。我们为萜类骨架的糖基化研究以及植物中药用萜类的生物合成途径提供参考。
