Dandan Huang

Hainan Institute of Biotechnology, Haikou, 570206, Hainan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Journal of Energy Bioscience, 2024, Vol. 15, No. 6   
Received: 13 Oct., 2024    Accepted: 18 Nov., 2024    Published: 22 Dec., 2024

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Isoflavones are mainly found in soybeans and are an important secondary metabolite. They not only play an important role in the plant defense system, but also reduce health risks such as hormone-dependent cancer, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease. The synthesis of isoflavones starts from phenylpropanoid metabolism, in which the core enzymes chalcone synthase (CHS) and isoflavone synthase (IFS) combine to form a metabolic complex to promote efficient metabolic flow. The transcriptional regulation of this pathway involves multiple key transcription factors (such as GmMYB29 and GmZFP7). Environmental factors such as temperature, light, soil, and water can affect the biosynthesis and accumulation of isoflavones, among which the plant hormone signaling pathway plays an important regulatory role. In recent years, with the advancement of genetic engineering technology, as well as the improvement of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing and synthetic biology strategies, we have the hope of achieving precise regulation of isoflavone biosynthesis genes. But at the same time, research in this field still faces many challenges. The impact of environmental conditions on metabolite accumulation, the complexity of biosynthetic pathways, and the metabolic trade-offs that may be caused by metabolic flow redistribution will all have an impact on the research. In the future, we hope to integrate multiple omics technologies, systematically analyze the regulatory network of isoflavone biosynthesis, optimize metabolic engineering strategies, improve the controllable accumulation of isoflavones, and reduce the uncertainty caused by environmental factors. Through these efforts, we will improve the environmental adaptability of soybeans and further expand the potential application of isoflavones in functional foods and human health.

Isoflavone biosynthesis; Phenylpropanoid pathway; Metabolic engineering; Soybean secondary metabolites; Transcriptional regulation