萜烯生物合成中关键酶的研究进展

Terpenes are a large class of highly diverse natural products with various physiological activities such as anti-tumor, anti-oxidation and immune regulation. Therefore, they are widely used in the fields of medicine and health, food, cosmetics, and biofuels. However, obtaining terpene compounds directly from natural resources is low efficient, costly, and often has an adverse impact on the ecological environment, making it impossible to achieve green and sustainable production. Microbial synthesis of terpenes has attracted much attention in recent years. Researchers have conducted explorations from the construction and regulation of synthetic pathways, protein engineering, and fermentation process optimization, and have obtained fruitful results. Among them, the efficiency of key enzymes in the synthetic pathway plays an important role in the microbial production of terpenes. Research on key enzymes is of great significance for improving the ability of microorganisms to synthesize terpenes and thus accelerating the large-scale application of microbial production of such natural products. Here, four key enzymes in the synthetic pathway of terpenes including 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR), l-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase (DXS), isoprenyl diphosphate synthase (IDS), and terpene synthase (TPS) were introduced. The regulation of catalytic activities of key enzymes via metabolic engineering, protein engineering and synthetic biology to improve the efficiency of microbial synthesis of terpenes as well as the prospects of using microorganisms to synthesize terpenes were also reviewed.