REVIEW article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Biotechnology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1586295
This article is part of the Research TopicPlant Glycobiology - A Sweet World of Glycans, Glycoproteins, Glycolipids, and Carbohydrate-Binding Proteins, Volume IIView all articles
Multi-Strategy UGT Mining, Modification and Glycosyl Donor Synthesis Facilitate the Production of Triterpenoid Saponins
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, China
- 2Weifang inspection and testing center, Weifang, Shandong Province, China
- 3Dongying High level Talent Research Center, Dongying, China
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Triterpenoid saponins are a class of plant secondary metabolites with significant biological activities and are widely used in the pharmaceutical and nutritional supplement industries. However, the production of triterpenoid saponins is limited by their complicated biosynthetic pathways and the availability of glycosyl donors. UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) play a key role in the glycosylation of triterpenoid saponins, significantly enhancing their structural diversity, solubility, pharmacological activity, and bioavailability. Therefore, the identification and modification of efficient, specific, and stable UGTs have attracted attention. This review focused on the advances in the glycosylation of triterpenoid saponins, with a particular emphasis on the application of multi-omics approaches in UGT mining. The combination of genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics has provided powerful tools for UGT screening, significantly improving the efficiency and accuracy of UGT identification. Additionally, the methods based on gene clusters, phylogenetic analysis, and the plant secondary product glycosyltransferase (PSPG) motif also offer new perspectives for UGT identification. Besides, the application of synthetic biology platforms has provided innovative approaches for high-throughput screening and functional validation of UGTs, laying a theoretical foundation for the functional modification of UGTs. We also discussed the latest research progress on UGT modification including directed evolution and rational design. These strategies, through amino acid mutations and structural optimization, are expected to enhance UGT catalytic activity, thermal stability, and broaden substrate specificity. Moreover, the diversity and availability of glycosyl donors directly influence the efficiency of glycosylation reactions and the diversity of the products. Thus, we discussed glycosyl donor synthesis, including in vitro and in vivo synthetic strategies. By optimizing metabolic pathways and introducing key enzyme genes, engineered microorganisms can efficiently synthesize various glycosyl donors, providing abundant substrates for glycosylation reactions. These studies offer new opportunities and challenges for the synthesis and application of triterpenoid saponins, promoting their industrial potential.
Keywords: Triterpenoid saponins, Glycosylation, UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs), Multi-omics approaches, Enzyme Engineering
Received: 13 Mar 2025; Accepted: 09 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hao, Liu, Dong, Liu, Qiu, Li and Qiao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yanan Qiao, Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, China
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