Metabolic engineering of the phenylpropanoid and its primary, precursor pathway to enhance the flavor of fruits and the aroma of flowers

Hadas Peled-Zehavi, Moran Oliva, Qingjun Xie, Vered Tzin, Michal Oren-Shamir, Asaph Aharoni*, Gad Galili

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Plants produce a diverse repertoire of specialized metabolites that have multiple roles throughout their life cycle. Some of these metabolites are essential components of the aroma and flavor of flowers and fruits. Unfortunately, attempts to increase the yield and prolong the shelf life of crops have generally been associated with reduced levels of volatile specialized metabolites and hence with decreased aroma and flavor. Thus, there is a need for the development of new varieties that will retain their desired traits while gaining enhanced scent and flavor. Metabolic engineering holds great promise as a tool for improving the profile of emitted volatiles of domesticated crops. This mini review discusses recent attempts to utilize metabolic engineering of the phenylpropanoid and its primary precursor pathway to enhance the aroma and flavor of flowers and fruits.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)204-212
Number of pages9
JournalBioengineering
Volume2
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2015

Funding

The Bi-national Agriculture Research and Development (BARD), as well as the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF) grants, kindly supported our research. We thank the Adelis Foundation, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Jeanne and Joseph Nissim Foundation for Life Sciences, the Tom and Sondra Rykoff Family Foundation Research and the Raymond Burton Plant Genome Research Fund for supporting the A.A. lab activity. A.A. is the incumbent of the Peter J. Cohn Professorial Chair. A.A. thanks COST FA1106 Quality Fruit for STSM and networking activities.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Bioengineering

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