Metabolic engineering of microorganisms for isoprenoid production

Isoprenoids are ubiquitous in nature and range from essential cell components to unique secondary metabolites. The two isoprenoid biosynthetic pathways have received much attention from a metabolic engineering standpoint, and significant advances have been made in increasing flux through these pathways. Engineering later steps in isoprenoid biosynthetic pathways, specifically those related to the functionalization of terpene backbones, is at an earlier stage of development, both in terms of gene discovery and heterologous expression. Here we review recent advances in the metabolic engineering of microbes for isoprenoid production as well as some novel approaches to gene discovery and expression.