Evolution-aided engineering of plant specialized metabolism.

ABSTRACT: The evolution of new traits in living organisms occurs via the processes of mutation, recombination, genetic drift, and selection. These processes that have resulted in the immense biological diversity on our planet are also being employed in metabolic engineering to optimize enzymes and pathways, create new-to-nature reactions, and synthesize complex natural products in heterologous systems. In this review, we discuss two evolution-aided strategies for metabolic engineering-directed evolution, which improves upon existing genetic templates using the evolutionary process, and combinatorial pathway reconstruction, which brings together genes evolved in different organisms into a single heterologous host. We discuss the general principles of these strategies, describe the technologies involv

SUBMITTER: Irfan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9590541 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature