Recent advances in microbial production of phenolic compounds

Abstract Phenolic compounds (PCs) are a group of compounds with various applications in nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Their supply by plant extraction and chemical synthesis is often limited by low yield and high cost. Microbial production represents as a promising alternative for efficient and sustainable production of PCs. In this review, we summarize recent advances in this field, which include enzyme mining and engineering to construct artificial pathways, balance of enzyme expression to improve pathway efficiency, coculture engineering to alleviate metabolic burden and side-reactions, and the use of genetic circuits for dynamic regulation and high throughput screening. Finally, current challenges and future perspectives for efficient production of PCs are also discussed.