ABSTRACT
Terpenoids are a chemically diverse class of natural products that are imperative for plant growth and development and serve commercial interests as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and flavor and fragrance ingredients. Low production levels in planta, supply–demand disparity, and the necessity of new scaffolds with novel bioactivities hinder their wide-range commercialization. This chapter surveys and highlights different aspects of bioengineering approaches that have been implemented for the qualitative and quantitative enhancement of terpenoids in homologous and heterologous host systems. This encompasses classic plant and microbial metabolic engineering efforts driven by the modification of rate-determining steps, diversion of carbon flux, transcription factor variations for regulatory check, alteration of subcellular compartmentalization, and introduction of whole or partial biosynthetic pathway segments. Further computational approaches and directed-evolution strategies for enzyme engineering are discussed. The futuristic expansion of terpenoid metabolic engineering capabilities, through custom-designed cell-free in vitro systems, is also reviewed in this chapter.
