Natural Product Biosynthesis in Escherichia coli: Mentha Monoterpenoids

The era of synthetic biology heralds in a new, more “green” approach to fine chemical and pharmaceutical drug production. It takes the knowledge of natural metabolic pathways and builds new routes to chemicals, enables nonnatural chemical production, and/or allows the rapid production of chemicals in alternative, highly performing organisms. This route is particularly useful in the production of monoterpenoids in microorganisms, which are naturally sourced from plant essential oils. Successful pathways are constructed by taking into consideration factors such as gene selection, regulatory elements, host selection and optimization, and metabolic considerations of the host organism. Seamless pathway construction techniques enable a “plug-and-play” switching of genes and regulatory parts to optimize the metabolic functioning in vivo. Ultimately, synthetic biology approaches to microbial monoterpenoid production may revolutionize “natural” compound formation.