Advances in artificial biosynthesis of bioactive plant natural products

Plant natural products (PNPs) offer exceptional chemical diversity and therapeutic potential, but their low natural abundance and complex biosynthetic origins often hinder scalable access. Microbial heterologous reconstruction has enabled the production of select PNPs, yet major challenges remain, including incomplete pathway elucidation, limited enzyme performance, and poor metabolic compatibility. Emerging advances in artificial biosynthesis provide a complementary strategy to transcend the constraints of native plant metabolism. By leveraging enzyme promiscuity, precursor prefunctionalization, modular pathway design, and recruitment of repurposed or engineered catalysts, artificial biosynthesis enables streamlined, controllable, and evolvable routes to structurally complex PNP scaffolds. These innovations define a rapidly advancing paradigm in which PNPs can be biosynthesized through predictive, design-driven, and non-natural pathways, offering new opportunities for discovery and sustainable biomanufacturing.