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Metabolic Engineering of Isoprenoid Production: Reconstruction of Multistep Heterologous Pathways in Tractable Hosts

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Isoprenoid Synthesis in Plants and Microorganisms

Abstract

Isoprenoids represent a wide group of chemically active compounds that can find a wide range of applications as flavors, perfumes, vitamins, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals. Many isoprenoids are naturally produced in very low quantities by plants, which make their use in broader perspectives difficult. Microbial production of plant-originating isoprenoids quickly appeared as an alternative of choice. Metabolic engineering methods were applied and proved successful to improve the supply of precursors to derive toward isoprenoid compounds of interest. Combinations between metabolic engineering and the flourishing field of synthetic biology have also been observed with researchers attempting to reconstruct and optimize complex biosynthetic pathways in well-characterized and tractable microbial hosts. In this chapter, we review recent metabolic engineering studies for isoprenoid production in yeast and try to show, through key examples, that the fields of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering can go hand in hand to establish microbial cell factories for isoprenoid production.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Firmenich SA for funding the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability - Technical University of Denmark, Fremtidsvej 3, 2970, Hørsholm, Denmark

    Jérôme Maury & Mohammad A. Asadollahi

  2. National Food Institute, Kgs Lyngby, Denmark

    Luca R. Formenti

  3. Biotechnology Department, Firmenich SA, Geneva, Switzerland

    Michel Schalk

  4. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Jens Nielsen

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  1. Jérôme Maury
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  2. Mohammad A. Asadollahi
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  3. Luca R. Formenti
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  4. Michel Schalk
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  5. Jens Nielsen
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Correspondence to Jérôme Maury .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Biologie Moléculaire, Département Réseaux, Université de Strasbourg, 28 rue Goethe, Strasbourg, 67083, France

    Thomas J. Bach

  2. , Institut Le Bel, Université Louis Pasteur, 4 rue Blaise Pascal, Strasbourg CX, 67070, France

    Michel Rohmer

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Maury, J., Asadollahi, M.A., Formenti, L.R., Schalk, M., Nielsen, J. (2012). Metabolic Engineering of Isoprenoid Production: Reconstruction of Multistep Heterologous Pathways in Tractable Hosts. In: Bach, T., Rohmer, M. (eds) Isoprenoid Synthesis in Plants and Microorganisms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4063-5_6

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