Investigating Plant Biosynthetic Pathways Using Heterologous Gene Expression: Yeast as a Heterologous Host

Plant natural products (PNPs) are valuable resources for the development of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, yet the biosynthesis and metabolism of PNPs are largely unknown. Heterologous pathway reconstitution is a heavily adopted strategy in secondary metabolism characterization. Yeast systems have been broadly utilized in the heterologous production of PNPs and have been considered as a promising platform to investigate plant biosynthetic pathways. Here, we describe the reconstitution and verification of the upstream part of brassinolide biosynthesis in S. cerevisiae using this method.