As a naturally occurring steroid sapogenin, diosgenin acts as the precursor of hundreds of steroid medicines, and thereby has important medicinal value. Currently, industrial production of diosgenin relies primarily on chemical extraction from plant materials. Clearly, this strategy shows drawbacks of excessive reliance on plant materials and farmland as well as environment pollution. Due to development of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, bio-production of diosgenin has garnered plenty of attention. Although the biosynthetic pathways of diosgenin have not been completely identified, in this review, we outline the identified biosynthetic pathways and key enzymes. In particular, we suggest heterologous biosynthesis of diosgenin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Overall, this review aims to provide valuable insights for future complete biosynthesis of diosgenin.
薯蓣皂素是一种天然甾体皂苷元，可作为数百种类固醇药物的前体，具有重要药用价值。目前工业生产薯蓣皂素主要依赖化学提取法，因此该法依赖植物材料和耕地且对环境有害。随着代谢工程和合成生物学的发展，生物合成法受到广泛关注。文中综述了生物合成薯蓣皂素的代谢途径和关键酶，并在酿酒酵母Saccharomyces cerevisiae中设计其异源合成途径，提出改造策略，以期为全生物合成薯蓣皂素提供有价值的参考。.
Keywords: biosynthetic pathway; diosgenin; heterologous expression; key enzymes.