Flavonoids in vegetables: improvement of dietary flavonoids by metabolic engineering to promote health

Abstract

Flavonoids are the most abundant polyphenols in plants, and have antioxidant effects as well as other bioactivities (e.g., anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-allergic, and neuroprotective effects). Vegetables are rich in flavonoids and are indispensable in our daily diet. Moreover, the vegetables as chassis for producing natural products would emerge as a promising means for cost-effective and sustainable production of flavonoids. Understanding the metabolic engineering of flavonoids in vegetables allows us to improve their nutrient composition. In this review, a comprehensive overview of flavonoids in vegetables, including the characterized types and distribution, health-promoting effects, associated metabolic pathways, and applied metabolic engineering are provided. We also introduce breakthroughs in multi-omics approaches that pertain to the elucidation of flavonoids metabolism in vegetables, as well as prospective and potential genome-editing technologies. Based on the varied composition and content of flavonoids among vegetables, dietary suggestions are further provided for human health.

Keywords:

• Antioxidants
• flavonoids
• metabolic engineering
• vegetables

Acknowledgments

The figures were drawn by using the tool Figdraw.

Author contributions

Conceptualization, H.T., Q.W. and G.H.; writing-original draft preparation, H.T.; writing-review and editing, H.T., Q.W. and G.H.; project administration and discussion, L.L., Y.H., X.Z. and Y.Z.; funding acquisition, G.H. All authors read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. LR22C020003, National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 32000234, 32172593 and the State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-Products under Grant No. 2021DG700024-KF202102, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation 2022M712831.