Research Progress of Synthetic Biology Technology in the Development and Utilization of Food and Medicine Homologous Resources

Food and medicine homology resourcesare rich in various active components and serve as an important material basis for the development of nutritional supplements and health products. However, the relevant active components are mainly obtained through plant extraction, facing issues such as long cultivation cycles, low natural content, and significant quality fluctuations. At the same time, traditional chemical synthesis routes are lengthy, lack stereoselectivity, and impose higher environmental burdens. Therefore, the biosynthesis of these components has attracted the attention of researchers. With the support of synthetic biology technologies such as pathway optimization, gene editing, and strain selection, microbial synthesis can achieve more sustainable production of active components in food and medicine homology resources and reduce environmental impact. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in the synthetic biology-driven biosynthesis of bioactive compounds derived from food and medicine homology resources, including terpenes and carotenoids, phenylpropanoids and flavonoids, alkaloids, polyphenols, and polysaccharides. Critical technical challenges are thoroughly analyzed, with particular emphasis on chassis cell adaptation, identification and characterization of key enzymes, balancing of metabolic precursors and cofactors, and bioprocess scale-up. Furthermore, the article envisions an integrated platform that synergizes artificial intelligence with synthetic biology, and outlines key future research directions. These include the integration of synthetic biology with AI-driven metabolic modeling, advanced enzyme engineering, and multicellular or cell-free production systems, aiming to lay a solid foundation for the scalable, synthetic biology-based manufacturing of high-value bioactive ingredients from dual-purpose medicinal and edible resources.