Flavonoid Biosynthetic Pathway: Genetics and Biochemistry

Abstract

Plants are sessile organisms which are capable of producing a large array of metabolites, required for their adaption and survival. Flavonoids are low molecular weight metabolites with C6–C3–C6 carbon backbones and are categorised into different classes on the basis of structural organization and polymerization. The biosynthesis and distribution of flavonoids depends on the development stage of the plant as well as on diverse environmental conditions. They play a significant role as pigments, phytoalexins, attractants of pollinators and promotes auxin transport. In plants, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities are attributed to interaction of flavonoids with various enzymes, transcription factor and signalling pathways. This review aims to provide the current understanding of structure, their types, biosynthesis and regulation of flavonoid pathway that provide the insights to the key regulating factors and their interactions which makes them the most promising and interesting targets for plant breeding programs to enhance the value-added products in plants. In this review the deep knowledge of flavonoid regulation by micro-RNAs has been provided that attracts the biotechnologists to develop new molecular approaches so as to engineer various plant metabolic pathways to enhance the health-promoting metabolites in plants for human consumption.