Biosynthesis

摘要

The trend, observed in previous reviews,~(1,2) of increasing activity in the area of biosynthetic studies has continued. In parallel with the general increase in publications, there has been continued interest in 'reprogramming' biological systems to produce compounds with increased structural diversity or beneficial biological properties. In this sense the study of biosynthetic processes is increasingly leading to the genetic engineering of organisms to produce compounds at will, while classical studies using feeding experiments have declined. Many of these advances have relied on the introduction of methods from the worlds of enzymology, molecular genetics and protein X-ray crystallography. This review will focus on the advances in understanding biosynthetic processes at the molecular level and the engineering of biosynthetic process to produce new compounds.