作者

Du J, Wei J*, Feng X*, Liang Z*, Alolga R*, Yin X*

发表年度

2026

刊物名称

Trends in Food Science & Technology

摘要

Background: Isoflavones are key phytoestrogens that play crucial roles in plant defense, serve as chemical signaling molecules during symbiotic nitrogen fixation, and confer multiple health benefits to humans. The high value of and demand for soybean isoflavones as nutraceuticals call for sustainable and alternative means of production.

Scope and approach: This review delineates recent progress in the biosynthesis of soybean isoflavones, outlines key underlying pathways, and focuses on state-of-the-art metabolic engineering strategies that could be adopted for consistent and sustainable production. Key strategies include redirection of host metabolic flux through gene editing, upregulation of biosynthetic routes via overexpression of key genes, and construction and use of plant and microbial cell factories. The review also highlights the main bottlenecks that come with each approach and proffers plausible solutions for possible real-world application.

Key findings and conclusions: In soybean, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout of competing pathway genes successfully redirects metabolic flux toward isoflavone production. Concurrently, the reconstruction of isoflavone biosynthetic pathways in heterologous hosts such as tobacco is underway, with current efforts focused on addressing key metabolic bottlenecks. Microbial cell factories have achieved significant progress in the heterologous expression of plant cytochrome P450 enzymes through approaches including modular pathway engineering, targeted enzyme evolution, and multi-strain co-culture, enabling de novo isoflavone synthesis. As a highly evolving field that is transitioning from mere mimicry of specific pathways to the design of novel isoflavones, the next phase of research promises breakthroughs in the pharmaceutical and functional food industries.