Synthetic biology applied to the biomanufacturing of plant natural products of pharmaceutical interest

Plants have long been a valuable source of secondary metabolites with pharmaceutical relevance, and the demand for these compounds continues to grow. However, traditional production methods—such as plant extraction and chemical synthesis—pose significant environmental and sustainability challenges. Synthetic biology offers promising alternative strategies for the sustainable production of these bioactive molecules. In particular, the integration of metabolic engineering and fermentation technologies enables the development of microorganisms, such as yeasts, as efficient cell factories. In this project, synthetic biology tools were developed and applied to engineer a recombinant strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the enhanced production of valuable biosynthetic intermediates that can serve as precursors for multiple plant-derived bioactive compounds through fermentation, starting from simple and readily available amino acids. To achieve this goal, a combined approach was employed, integrating the use of these tools with the heterologous expression of selected enzymes, optimization of metabolic fluxes, and refinement of fermentation processes. The results obtained from engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains carrying different combinations of heterologous genes and deletions will be presented, highlighting the production of distinct biosynthetic intermediates, together with future strategies aimed at enhancing metabolite production.