This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(81973424,82073966,82204346);the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences(CIFMS)(Grant No.2021-I2M-1-029,China);the National Key R&D Program of China(2023YFC3504800);the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central public welfare research institutes(ZZ16-YQ-047,ZZ16-ND-10-02,China);the Key Scientific Research Foundation of the Higher Education Institutions of Anhui Province,China(KJ2021A0235).
Crocus sativus (saffron) is a globally autumn-flowering plant, and its stigmas are the most expensive spice and valuable herb medicine. Crocus specialized metabolites, crocins, are biosynthesized in distant species, G...