Review Article Engineering Microbial Cells for the Biosynthesis of Natural Compounds of Pharmaceutical Significance

Copyright © 2013 Philippe Jeandet et al.This is an open access article distributed under theCreativeCommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Microbes constitute important platforms for the biosynthesis of numerous molecules of pharmaceutical interest such as antitumor, anticancer, antiviral, antihypertensive, antiparasitic, antioxidant, immunological agents, and antibiotics as well as hormones, belonging to various chemical families, for instance, terpenoids, alkaloids, polyphenols, polyketides, amines, and proteins. Engineering microbial factories offers rich opportunities for the production of natural products that are too complex for cost-effective chemical synthesis and whose extraction from their originating plants needs the use of many solvents. Recent progresses that have beenmade since themillennium beginning withmetabolic engineering of microorganisms for the biosynthesis of natural products of pharmaceutical significance will be reviewed. 1