Exact biosynthetic pathways of most sesquiterpene lactones

Determine the exact biosynthetic pathways for the majority of plant sesquiterpene lactones (STLs), specifying the sequence of enzymatic steps and intermediates from farnesyl diphosphate to the final lactone structures to enable reliable pathway prediction and engineering.

Background

The review highlights the therapeutic and ecological importance of sesquiterpene lactones (STLs) and emphasizes the need for economically feasible production. While artemisinin biosynthesis has been largely reconstructed in yeast, most STL pathways have not been fully elucidated, hindering metabolic engineering and discovery efforts.

The authors discuss sequence- and expression-based strategies to predict biosynthetic genes and pathways but stress that comprehensive, experimentally validated pathways are largely missing for most STLs.