Microbial fermentation platforms offer a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to plant cultivation and chemical synthesis for the production of many plant-derived pharmaceuticals. Plant alkaloids, particularly benzylisoquinoline alkaloids and monoterpene indole alkaloids, and recently cannabinoids have become attractive targets for microbial biosynthesis owing to their medicinal importance. Recent advances in the discovery of pathway components, together with the application of synthetic biology tools, have facilitated the assembly of plant alkaloid and cannabinoid pathways in the microbial hosts Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This review highlights key aspects of these pathways in the framework of overcoming bottlenecks in microbial production to further improve end-product titers. We discuss the opportunities that emerge from a better understanding of the pathway components by further study of the plant, and strategies for generation of new and advanced medicinal compounds.

微生物发酵平台为生产多种植物来源的药物提供了经济高效且可持续的替代方法，可替代植物种植和化学合成。植物生物碱，特别是苄基异喹啉生物碱和单萜吲哚生物碱，以及最近的大麻素由于其医学重要性而已成为微生物生物合成的有吸引力的靶标。途径组分发现的最新进展以及合成生物学工具的应用，促进了微生物宿主大肠杆菌和酿酒酵母中植物生物碱和大麻素途径的组装。。这篇综述突出了克服微生物生产瓶颈的框架中这些途径的关键方面，以进一步提高最终产品的效价。我们讨论了通过对植物的进一步研究更好地理解途径成分而产生的机会，以及产生新的和先进的药用化合物的策略。