Synthetic metabolic engineering of functional crops: Boosting nutrition and human health

A growing global population and the increasing prevalence of diet-related health issues such as “hidden hunger”, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes necessitate a fundamental rethinking of crop design and breeding. Synthetic metabolic engineering offers a method to modify and redesign metabolic pathways to increase the nutritional value of crops. We summarize recent advances in the biofortification of key nutrients including provitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B9, iron, zinc, anthocyanins, flavonoids, and unsaturated fatty acids. We discuss the potential of multi-gene stacking, gene editing, enzyme engineering, and artificial intelligence in synthetic metabolic engineering. We propose future research directions and potential solutions centered on leveraging AI-driven systems biology, precision gene editing, enzyme engineering, agrobacterium-mediated genotype-independent transformation, and modular metabolic engineering strategies to develop next-generation nutritionally enhanced super crops and transform global food systems.