Microbial production of monoterpenes is often limited by their cytotoxicity and in vivo conversion. Therefore, alleviating cytotoxicity and reducing conversion by chassis engineering are highly desirable. On the other hand, engineering key enzymes is also critical for improving monoterpenes production through facilitating the biosynthesis process. Here we critically review recent advances in cytotoxicity alleviation, reducing in vivo conversion, selecting geranyl diphosphate synthase and engineering monoterpene synthases. These achievements would lead to the development of superior chassis with improved tolerance to cytotoxicity and rationally tailored metabolites profiles to improve titer, yield and productivity for the production of monoterpenes by microbial cells.

单萜的微生物产生通常受到其细胞毒性和体内转化的限制。因此，非常需要通过底盘工程来减轻细胞毒性并减少转化。另一方面，工程化关键酶对于通过促进生物合成过程来提高单萜产量也至关重要。在这里，我们严格审查细胞毒性缓解，减少体内转化，选择香叶基二磷酸合酶和工程单萜合酶的最新进展。这些成就将导致具有优异的细胞毒性耐受性和合理定制代谢产物谱的优良底盘的开发，从而改善由微生物细胞生产单萜的滴度，产量和生产率。