Abstract:

Salidroside, a natural product renowned for its anti-hypoxia, anti-oxidation, anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, and anti-tumor properties, is extensively utilized in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Traditionally, salidroside has been obtained through the extraction from the rhizomes and tubers of Rhodiola species, including water extraction, two-phase aqueous extraction, supercritical CO₂ extraction and microwave assisted extraction. However, its low natural abundance (with the salidroside content in rhizomes and tubers of Rhodiola species ranging from 0.5% to 0.8%), coupled with escalating demand, has led to a progressive depletion of these plant resources. Given the broad application potential of salidroside, the rapid growth of market demand, and the increasing scarcity of natural resources, there is an urgent need to develop innovative synthetic approaches for this valuable compound. Chemical synthesis of salidroside is characterized by its efficiency and rapid processing time. However, the use of strong acids, bases, and heavy metal ions in the synthesis process poses challenges for the separation of salidroside and contributes to environmental pollution. In recent years, with the advancements in synthetic biology, the construction of microbial cell factories for biosynthesis of salidroside has become a viable strategy to mitigate the current supply-demand imbalance and resource scarcity associated with the natural biosynthetic pathway of salidroside. To enhance the production of salidroside biosynthesis, two main strategies can be employed. First, metabolic engineering approaches can be used to overexpress key genes in the pathway while knocking out or downregulating bypass genes, thereby increasing precursor accumulation and optimizing metabolic flux. Second, enzyme engineering strategies can be applied to improve the catalytic efficiency and regioselectivity of natural glycosyltransferases, which often exhibit low activity and poor selectivity. Sequence alignment techniques can be used to identify and screen potential glycosyltransferases from various biological genomes. Additionally, protein engineering combined with computational approaches can be utilized to optimize these enzymes to meet specific requirements, ultimately improving the production of salidroside. In this comprehensive review, we systematically assess the pharmacological activities of salidroside, the plant biosynthetic pathway, the mining and screening of pathway enzymes, and the biosynthetic advancements in Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Additionally, we discuss the separation and purification methods of salidroside and its application potential as a synthetic intermediate in the preparation of other compounds, such as hydroxysalidroside, verbascoside and echinacoside. This review aims to enhance the understanding of the biosynthetic pathway of salidroside, thereby promoting a greener and more efficient biosynthetic approach to salidroside production.

Key words: salidroside, microbial synthesis, synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, cosmetics

摘要：

红景天苷是一种具有抗缺氧、抗氧化、抗衰老和抗肿瘤等活性的天然产物，被广泛应用于化妆品与医药领域。目前获取红景天苷的主要方式是从红景天属植物的根茎和块茎中提取，由于其含量稀少，日益增长的市场需求导致植物资源逐渐匮乏。因此，开发新的合成方法成为了研究热点。红景天苷的天然生物合成路径已被解析，随着合成生物学的发展，采用合成生物技术构建微生物细胞工厂合成红景天苷成为缓解当前供需失衡和资源紧缺状况的有效途径。本文针对红景天苷的药理活性、植物合成路径、途径酶的挖掘与筛选、大肠杆菌和酿酒酵母的生物合成现状等相关研究进展进行系统性的综述，探讨了红景天苷的分离提纯方法以及它作为合成中间体在制备其他化合物方面的应用潜力，以期助力对红景天苷合成路径与相关工程改造策略的理解，并推动红景天苷绿色、高效的生物合成。

关键词: 红景天苷, 微生物合成, 合成生物学, 代谢工程, 化妆品