三萜皂苷是一类重要的植物次生代谢产物,具有抗癌、抗病毒、降低胆固醇等药理作用。但三萜皂苷结构和生物合成途径复杂,在植物中的量低,提取成本高,因此对三萜皂苷生物合成途径研究并通过合成生物学等方法生产三萜皂苷已成为研究热点,合成生物学在三萜类药效成分或其前体的大规模生产应用方面具有广阔前景。综述了三萜皂苷生物合成途径、合成生物学及其在三萜合成方面的应用进展,探讨了三萜生物合成所面临的问题,并对合成生物学在医药领域的巨大潜力进行了预测。

Triterpene saponin is one of the important plant secondary metabolities, with anticancer, antivirus, and cholesterol lowering activities. However, the chemical structure of triterpen saponins and biosynthetic pathway are complicated. The content in plants is low and the cost of extract is high. So it is important to explore the biosynthetic pathway and the synthetic biology has become a hot spot for producing triterpene saponins. Synthetic biology has the broad application prospects on the scale production of triterpene saponins and their precursors. In this paper, the research progress in the biosynthetic pathway, synthetic biology, and its application on triterpene saponins are reviewed. The problems faced by synthetic biology are discussed and the great potential of synthetic biology in medicine fields is predicted.

国家自然科学基金资助项目(81373914,81573521);中国医学科学院药用植物研究所创新团队研究计划(IT1306)