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Abstract
Betalains are tyrosine-derived red-violet and yellow pigments found exclusively in
plants of the Caryophyllales order, which have drawn both scientific and economic
interest. Nevertheless, research into betalain chemistry, biochemistry, and function
has been limited as comparison with other major classes of plant pigments such as
anthocyanins and carotenoids. The core biosynthetic pathway of this pigment class
has only been fully elucidated in the past few years, opening up the possibility for
betalain pigment engineering in plants and microbes. In this review, we discuss betalain
metabolism in light of recent advances in the field, with a current survey of characterized
genes and enzymes that take part in betalain biosynthesis, catabolism, and transcriptional
regulation, and an outlook of what is yet to be discovered. A broad view of currently
used and potential new sources for betalains, including utilization of natural sources
or metabolic engineering, is provided together with a summary of potential applications
of betalains in research and commercial use.