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Published on: September 25, 2017
Discovery and Engineering of Cytochrome P450s for Terpenoid Biosynthesis
Han Xiao1, Yue Zhang2, Meng Wang3
1State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic & Developmental Sciences, and Laboratory of Molecular Biochemical Engineering, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong-chuan Road, Shanghai, 200240, China; Co-first author with equal contribution.
Abstract:
Terpenoids represent 60% of known natural products, including many drugs and drug candidates, and their biosynthesis is attracting great interest. However, the unknown cytochrome P450s (CYPs) in terpenoid biosynthetic pathways make the heterologous production of related terpenoids impossible, while the slow kinetics of some known CYPs greatly limit the efficiency of terpenoid biosynthesis. Thus, there is a compelling need to discover and engineer CYPs for terpenoid biosynthesis to fully realize their great potential for industrial application. This review article summarizes the current state of CYP discovery and engineering in terpenoid biosynthesis, focusing on recent synthetic biology approaches toward prototyping CYPs in heterologous hosts. We also propose several strategies for further accelerating CYP discovery and engineering.
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