Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for isoprenoid production in Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Isoprenoids, often called terpenoids, are the most abundant and highly diverse family of natural organic compounds. In plants, they play a distinct role in the form of photosynthetic pigments, hormones, electron carrier, structural components of membrane, and defence. Many isoprenoids have useful applications in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and chemical industries. They are synthesized by various isoprenoid synthase enzymes by several consecutive steps. Recent advancement in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology has enabled the production of these isoprenoids in the heterologous host systems like Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Both heterologous systems have been engineered for large-scale production of value-added isoprenoids. This review article will provide the detailed description of various approaches used for engineering of methyl- d -erythritol-4-phosphate (MEP) and mevalonate (MVA) pathway for synthesizing isoprene units (C 5 ) and ultimate production of diverse isoprenoids. The review particularly highlighted the efforts taken for the production of C 5 –C 20 isoprenoids by metabolic engineering techniques in E. coli and S. cerevisiae over a decade. The challenges and strategies are also discussed in detail for scale-up and engineering of isoprenoids in the heterologous host systems. Key points • Isoprenoids are beneficial and valuable natural products. • E. coli and S. cerevisiae are the promising host for isoprenoid biosynthesis. • Emerging techniques in synthetic biology enabled the improved production. • Need to expand the catalogue and scale-up of un-engineered isoprenoids. Graphical abstract Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for isoprenoid production in Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae