Abstract

A REVIEW ON METABOLIC ENGINEERING APPROACHES FOR ENRICHMENT AND PRODUCTION OF NEW SECONDARY METABOLITES IN BASELLA SPECIES

B. Ramesh Kumar*

ABSTRACT

Plant metabolism represents a vast range of bioactive compounds with significant pharmacological properties. Secondary metabolites in plants are evolved as an emerging topic of research due to high structural complexity of a wide range of compounds and their economic value as a source of valuable drugs. Flavonoids, an important class of secondary metabolites accumulates in different plant tissues as potent antioxidant and their biosynthetic pathway is well characterized among different plant species. Basella, an important leafy vegetable are good source of naturally occurring bioactive compounds with high medicinal value. Metabolic engineering is an important method to identify the effects of pathway engineering in particular plant species which leads to significant changes in composition of natural products on an industrial scale. Recent advances in manipulation of the biosynthetic pathway through metabolic engineering allow increasing the concentration of the existing compound and by evaluating the role of structural and regulatory genes involved. Therefore, the present review highlights the progress towards the development of various metabolic engineering strategies available for flavonoid metabolism in Basella and the accumulated compounds which may serve as an important precursor of therapeutic drugs and food products in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries.

Keywords: Basella, Flavonoids, Betalains, Biosynthetic Pathways, Metabolic engineering.