Within and beyond organelle engineering: strategies for increased terpene production in yeasts and plants

Synthetic biology programs for the increased production of bioactive plant-derived terpenes initially focused on linear aspects of their biosynthetic pathways. Yet, the spatial organization of terpene pathways, typically across multiple cellular compartments, seriously encumbers engineering success. Here, we discuss the recent advances in the endoplasmic reticulum, peroxisome and other organellar engineering and illustrate how this is being applied to increase terpene pathway performances in plants and yeasts. We also discuss how specialized transporters could present potent novel tools to connect cellular compartments. Altogether, these new perspectives demonstrate how synthetic biology can offer real-world solutions for the efficient and sustainable production of high-value terpenes and eventually address the shortcomings of extraction from natural resources.