Work

Harnessing evolution: leveraging bacterial isoprenoid pathway diversity toward improved bioengineering strategies

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Isoprenoids play vital roles in all domains of life, from beta-carotene in bacteria to heme in humans. Two distinct metabolic pathways have evolved to synthesize the critical precursor of all mature isoprenoids: the mevalonate (MEV) and the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathways. Here, we quantify the extensive inter- and intra-genus heterogeneity in the usage of these two pathways with particular emphasis on rare bacteria that encode both, or neither, pathways. Furthermore, MEP intermediates themselves have non-isoprenogenic roles that may underlie evolutionary pressures driving pathway diversification. Understanding isoprenoid biosynthesis in bacteria offers new avenues toward more sustainable engineering of economically relevant molecules in microbes.

Source: Journal of Bacteriology

DOI: 10.1128/jb.00441-25

Authors: Christine M. Qabar, Bailey A. Marshall, Robert Landick, Jeffery S. Cox

Institutions: University of California, Berkeley, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center

Language: English

Topic: Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: diamond