Metabolic engineering of yeast for de novo production of kratom monoterpene indole alkaloids

A snapshot of biomanufacturing and the need for enabling research infrastructure

Biomanufacturing is crucial for the bioeconomy, with growing investment and attention from industries and governments. Over recent decades numerous biotech companies have been founded, and policies have increasingly prioritised sustainable production methods. However, translation of biotechnological innovations into industrial applications remains challenging, requiring interdisciplinary research infrastructures (RIs) to address gaps in bioprocess development, scalability, and competitiveness. This opinion examines the current landscape of biomanufacturing and highlights the pivotal role of RIs in supporting these transitions. It also proposes enhanced research interoperability, standardisation, and democratisation through meta-workflows that streamline operations within and between RIs. By improving data sharing, process harmonisation, and scalability, these ecosystems can help to overcome technical and economic barriers in a concerted effort towards sustainable, bio-based global manufacturing.

Synthetic Biology in Natural Product Biosynthesis

Synthetic biology has played an important role in the renaissance of natural products research during the post-genomics era. The development and integration of new tools have transformed the workflow of natural product discovery and engineering, generating multidisciplinary interest in the field. In this review, we summarize recent developments in natural product biosynthesis from three different aspects. First, advances in bioinformatics, experimental, and analytical tools to identify natural products associated with predicted biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) will be covered. This will be followed by an extensive review on the heterologous expression of natural products in bacterial, fungal and plant organisms. The native host-independent paradigm to natural product identification, pathway characterization, and enzyme discovery is where synthetic biology has played the most prominent role. Lastly, strategies to engineer biosynthetic pathways for structural diversification and complexity generation will be discussed, including recent advances in assembly-line megasynthase engineering, precursor-directed structural modification, and combinatorial biosynthesis.