Discovery of catalytic tools for isoprenoid production

异戊二烯类化合物是一大类结构多样的天然产物，有55,000多种已知化合物。许多异戊二烯类化合物已被用作香料、医药和工业聚合物。目前，所有异戊二烯类化合物都是通过工厂提纯或涉及石化产品的化学合成来供应的。然而，来自自然资源的产量往往不足以满足工业需求，而且由于环境干扰，化学合成并不可取。为了克服这些问题，利用生物系统酶法生产类异戊二烯已经成为一种有吸引力的替代传统的提纯和化学合成的方法；然而，我们目前对类异戊二烯代谢的了解仍然不足以实现类异戊二烯的生物供应。

The isoprenoids are a large and structurally diverse class of natural products with more than 55,000 known compounds. Many isoprenoids have been used as flavors, pharmaceuticals, and industrial polymers. All isoprenoids are currently supplied either by purification from plants or by chemical synthesis involving petrochemicals. However, the yield from natural sources is often inadequate to meet industrial demands, and chemical synthesis is not desirable due to environmental perturbation. To overcome these, the enzymatic production of isoprenoids using biological systems has become an attractive alternative to the traditional purification and chemical synthesis; however, our current knowledge of isoprenoid metabolism remains insufficient to realize the biological supply of isoprenoids.