Advances in the Structures, Pharmacological Activities, and Biosynthesis of Plant Diterpenoids

More and more diterpenoids have attracted extensive attention due to the diverse chemical structures and excellent biological activities, and have been developed into clinical drugs or consumer products. The vast majority of diterpenoids are derived from plants. With the long-term development of plant medicinal materials, the natural resources of many plant diterpenoids are decreasing, and the biosynthetic mechanism of key active components has increasingly become a research hotspot. Using synthetic biology to engineer microorganisms into "cell factories" to produce the desired compounds is an essential means to solve these problems. In this review, we depict the plant-derived diterpenoids from chemical structure, biological activities, and biosynthetic pathways. We use representative plant diterpenes as examples to expound the research progress on their biosynthesis, and summarize the heterologous production of plant diterpenoids in microorganisms in recent years, hoping to lay the foundation for the development and application of plant diterpenoids in the future.