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Updated: Oct 25, 2025

Biosynthesis of a Flavonol from a Flavanone by Establishing a One-pot Bienzymatic Cascade
Published on: August 14, 2019
Metabolic Engineering of Microbial Cell Factories for Biosynthesis of Flavonoids: A Review
Hanghang Lou1, Lifei Hu2, Hongyun Lu1
1Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
Abstract:
Flavonoids belong to a class of plant secondary metabolites that have a polyphenol structure. Flavonoids show extensive biological activity, such as antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic, anti-cancer, and antibacterial properties, so they are widely used in the food, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical industries. However, traditional sources of flavonoids are no longer sufficient to meet current demands. In recent years, with the clarification of the biosynthetic pathway of flavonoids and the development of synthetic biology, it has become possible to use synthetic metabolic engineering methods with microorganisms as hosts to produce flavonoids. This article mainly reviews the biosynthetic pathways of flavonoids and the development of microbial expression systems for the production of flavonoids in order to provide a useful reference for further research on synthetic metabolic engineering of flavonoids. Meanwhile, the application of co-culture systems in the biosynthesis of flavonoids is emphasized in this review.
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