香豆素类化合物功能及生物合成研究进展*

香豆素类化合物是自然界中一类重要的化合物,具有抗肿瘤、抗凝血、抗菌、杀虫等多种生物活性,应用领域广泛。目前大多数香豆素类化合物从植物中提取,受环境因素影响较大,得率低、成本高,不利于大规模生产,从而限制了其应用和推广。利用合成生物学的思路合成香豆素类化合物具有无污染、原料易得、成本低、过程可控等优势。对香豆素类化合物生物合成途径的研究,尤其是靶标天然产物生物合成表达元件、宿主和发酵条件的优化,以及合成途径中关键酶的挖掘,已经成为研究热点。综述香豆素类化合物及其衍生物的结构、功能和生物合成研究进展,为其生物合成路径中的基因挖掘及异源表达提供参考。

Research Progress of Function and Biosynthesis of Coumarins

Coumarins are important compounds in nature. They show a wide range of applications, due to their multiple bio-activities such as antitumor, anticoagulation, antibacterial, and insecticidal. At present, most of these compounds are obtained through plant extraction, which is greatly affected by environmental factors, resulting in low yield and high cost, and therefore is not conducive to large-scale production and hinders their application. Instead, the biosynthesis process is controllable. It becomes a research hotspot to develop industrialized production technology of target natural products through optimization of the biosynthetic expression elements, host and fermentation conditions. However, mining of key enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway is still a difficult task in this research field. In this paper, the structure, function and biosynthesis of some coumarins and their derivatives are reviewed, which provides a reference for gene mining and heterologous expression of the synthetic pathways of these compounds.