Medicinal natural products derived from plants are usually of low content and difficult to extract and isolate. Moreover, these compounds are structurally complex, making it difficult to obtain them by environmental unfriendly chemical synthesis. Biosynthesis of medicinal natural products through synthetic biology is a novel, environment-friendly and sustainable approach. Taking terpenoids (ginsenosides, paclitaxel, artemisinin, tanshinones), alkaloids (vincristine and morphine), and flavonoids (breviscapine) as examples, this review summarizes the advances of the biosynthetic pathways and synthetic biology strategies of plant-derived medicinal natural products. Moreover, we introduce the key technologies and methods of synthetic biology used in the research of medicinal natural products, and provide future prospects in this area.
大多数药用天然产物在植物中含量低微，提取分离困难；而且这些化合物一般结构复杂，化学合成难度大，还容易造成环境污染。基于合成生物学技术获得药用天然产物具有绿色环保和可持续发展等优点。文中以药用萜类化合物人参皂苷、紫杉醇、青蒿素、丹参酮，生物碱类化合物长春新碱、吗啡以及黄酮类化合物灯盏花素为例，总结了植物来源药用萜类、生物碱类和黄酮类化合物的生物合成途径及合成生物学研究进展，介绍了药用天然产物合成生物学研究的关键技术与方法，并展望了合成生物学技术在药用天然产物研究与开发方面的应用前景。.
Keywords: biosynthesis; metabolic engineering; microbial cell factory; plant-derived medicinal natural product; synthetic biology.