Improvement of glucosinolates by metabolic engineering in Brassicacrops

Glucosinolates (GSLs) are a class of sulfur- and nitrogen-containing, and amino acid-derived important secondary metabolites, which mainly present in plants of Brassicaceae family, including Brassicacrops, such as broccoli, cabbage, and oilseed rape. The bioactive GSL metabolites confer benefits to plant defense, human health, and the unique flavor of some Brassicacrops. However, certain GSL profiles have adverse effects and are known as anti-nutritional factors. This has attracted mounting attempts to increase beneficial GSLs and reduce detrimental ones in the most commonly consumed Brassicacrops. We provide a comprehensive overview of metabolic engineering applied in Brassicacrops to achieve this purpose, including modulation of GSL biosynthesis, ablation of GSL hydrolysis, inhibition of GSL transport processes, and redirection of metabolic flux to GSL. Moreover, advances in omics approaches, i.e., genomics, transcriptome, and metabolome, applied in the elucidation of GSL metabolism in Brassicacrops, as well as promising and potential genome-editing technologies are also discussed.