Molecular Mechanism Studies of Terpenoid Biosynthesis in Agarwood

Abstract

The wound-induced natural production of agarwood hindered the development of its industry. Effi cient and sustainable manner for its production should be developed. Metabolic engineering is one of the techniques with incredible potential to solve this problem. However, its realization should depend on the deep understanding of the whole biosynthetic pathway of the agarwood constituents. Here, we introduce studies of the molecular mechanism of the main agarwood constituentsterpenoids -to have an overview of the development in the study of the terpene biosynthesis pathway and the possible regulators of terpene biosynthesis in agarwood, including miRNAs and the members in the signal transduction. We also discuss the efforts that should be undertaken in the future.

A synthetic biology and green bioprocess approach to recreate agarwood sesquiterpenoid mixtures

“…28 However, the increasing demand for their resinous wood has placed an unprecedented pressure on their natural sources, particularly older trees native to Southeast Asian forests, and the requirement of tissue wounding to promote resin formation further increases this pressure. 3,8 In this sample set, we observed that each agarwood and distillate sample contained hundreds of unique STPs and share a subset of these chemicals in varying abundances (ESI Files 1-3 and ESI Tables 2-4 †). There was no obvious correlation between agarwood prices, origin locations, colour, or sample type, indicating that their market value is subjective, largely based on perceived fragrance or rarity (ESI Table 1, ESI Fig.…”

“…1 Indigenous to Southeast Asian countries, these trees are prized for the complex fragrances of their resins that originate from multiple oxygenated and non-oxygenated sesquiterpenoids. [2][3][4] These resins form after physical wounding of the tree, and their unique chemical profile develops over periods up to several decades. 3,4 The use of agarwood pro-ducts for incense, perfumes, medicines and ornamentation has been recorded across cultures and centuries.…”

A green alternative to fragrant agarwood sesquiterpenoid production

“…Agarwoods have captivated human interest for centuries due to their complex and diverse fragrances 27 . However, the increasing demand for their resinous wood has placed an unprecedented pressure on their natural sources, particularly older trees native to Southeast Asian forests, and tissue wounding to promote resin formation further increases this pressure 3,8 . In this sample set, we observed that each agarwood and distillate sample contained hundreds of unique STPs and share a subset of these chemicals in varying abundances (Supplementary Files 1–3; Supplementary Tables 2–4).…”

“…These resins form after physical wounding of the tree, and their unique chemical profile develops over periods up to several decades 3,4 . The use of agarwood products for incense, perfumes, medicines and ornamentation has been recorded across cultures and centuries [3][4][5] . Common applications are burning wood chips as incense and steam-distillate oils as perfume ingredients 4,6 .…”

“…The main fragrant compounds in agarwood are sesquiterpenoids (STPs), an ecologically important class of 15-carbon atom terpenoid compounds that play a crucial role in cloud formation 12 . These STPs originate from at least seven distinct primary chemical skeletons: agarofuran, agarospirane/vetispirane, cadinene, eremophilane/valencene, eudesmane/selinene, guaianes, and prezizanes 3,10,13 . Both abiotic and biotic factors govern their creation in situ where oxygenation of STPs to derivatives occurs, further shaping their individual scent profiles.…”