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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 28, 2026

A Customizable Approach for the Enzymatic Production and Purification of Diterpenoid Natural Products

A Customizable Approach for the Enzymatic Production and Purification of Diterpenoid Natural Products

Published on: October 4, 2019

Developing fermentative terpenoid production for commercial usage.

Michael D Leavell¹, Derek J McPhee¹, Chris J Paddon¹

¹Amyris, Inc., 5885 Hollis Street, Suite 100, Emeryville, CA 94608, USA.

Current Opinion in Biotechnology

|January 2, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Metabolic engineering enables cost-effective microbial production of terpenoids, a large compound family. This review covers pathways, commercial examples like artemisinin, and future applications in chemicals and fragrances.

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Area of Science:

Biochemistry
Metabolic Engineering
Synthetic Biology

Background:

Terpenoids are a vast class of natural compounds (>55,000) with limited commercial use due to low yields in native hosts.
Natural production examples include rubber and astaxanthin, but scalability is challenging.
Metabolic engineering offers a solution for large-scale, economical terpenoid synthesis.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the biochemical pathways of terpenoid production.
To highlight metabolic engineering strategies for enhancing terpenoid yields.
To survey commercially relevant terpenoids and their production methods.

Main Methods:

Description of key terpenoid biosynthetic pathways.
Analysis of metabolic engineering techniques applied to heterologous hosts.
Review of current commercial and developmental terpenoid production processes.

Main Results:

Metabolic engineering facilitates fermentative production of terpenoids in microorganisms.
Optimized pathways and host manipulations enable economically viable production levels.
Successful commercialization includes artemisinin, fragrance compounds, isoprene, and β-farnesene.

Conclusions:

Metabolic engineering has overcome previous limitations in terpenoid production.
Fermentative microbial production is a viable route for diverse terpenoids.
This approach supports the commercial development of high-value terpenoids and commodity chemicals.