Engineered microorganisms and enzymes for efficiently synthesizing plant natural products

Abstract

Plant natural products are a kind of active substance widely used in pharmaceuticals and foods. However, the current production mode based on plant culture and extraction suffer complex processes and severe concerns for environmental and ecological. With the increasing awareness of environmental sustainability, engineered microbial cell factories have been an alternative approach to produce natural products. Many engineering strategies have been utilized in microbial biosynthesis of complex phytochemicals such as dynamic control and substructure engineering. Meanwhile, Enzyme engineering including directed evolution and rational design has been implemented to improve enzyme catalysis efficiency and stability as well as change promiscuity to expand product spectra. In this review, we discussed recent advances in microbial biosynthesis of complex phytochemicals from the following aspects, including pathway construction, strain engineering to boost the production.