Bioproduction of monoterpene indole alkaloids in a single cell factory.

The de novo biosynthesis of vindoline and catharanthine, the direct precursors used for industrial production of the anti-cancer drug vinblastine, has been achieved in the yeast cell factory. To date, this is the longest natural product biosynthesis pathway that has been successfully transferred from plants to microorganisms, indicating the possibility of producing more than 3,000 other monoterpene indole alkaloids in yeast by synthetic genome engineering.