title: Engineering microbes for plant polyketide biosynthesis.
abstract: Polyketides are an important group of secondary metabolites, many of which have important industrial applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Polyketides are synthesized from one of three classes of enzymes differentiated by their biochemical features and product structure: type I, type II or type III polyketide synthases (PKSs). Plant type III PKS enzymes, which will be the main focus of this review, are relatively small homodimeric proteins that catalyze iterative decarboxylative condensations of malonyl units with a CoA-linked starter molecule. This review will describe the plant type III polyketide synthetic pathway, including the synthesis of chalcones, stilbenes and curcuminoids, as well as recent work on the synthesis of these polyketides in heterologous organisms. The limitations and bottlenecks of heterologous expression as well as attempts at creating diversity through the synthesis of novel "unnatural" polyketides using type III PKSs will also be discussed. Although synthetic production of plant polyketides is still in its infancy, their potential as useful bioactive compounds makes them an extremely interesting area of study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H4B 1R6.
authors.forename: François-Xavier
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Lussier
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H4B 1R6.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Colatriano
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H4B 1R6.
authors.forename: Zach
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wiltshire
authors.affiliation: National Research Council of Canada, 110 Gymnasium Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, S7N 0W9.
authors.forename: Jonathan E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Page
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H4B 1R6.
authors.forename: Vincent J J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Martin
keywords: Plant polyketide; metabolic engineering; microbes