Santalene and santalol are the main components of valuable perfume sandalwood essential oil, and have good antibacterial, anti-oxidation and anti-tumor activities. Commercial sandalwood essential oil is mainly extracted from sandalwood tree that grows slowly and is difficult to cultivate. In addition, the extraction recovery of sandalwood essential oil from sandalwood tree is too low to meet the market demand. These factors make sandalwood essential oil expensive. An option is to use genetic engineering and molecular biological methods to heterologously express related synthase of santalene and santalol in microbial host. In this paper, the biosynthesis progress of santalene and santalol synthase, as well as the optimization of mevalonate metabolic pathways in the hosts are summarized. Furthermore, the strategies of applying protein engineering technology to carry out orthomutation of santalene synthase were also discussed, to provide reference for the optimal biosynthesis of santalene and santalol.
檀香烯和檀香醇是名贵香料檀香精油的主要组成成分，具有较好的抗菌、抗氧化和抗肿瘤等药理活性。市售檀香精油主要从檀香树提取，但檀香树生长缓慢及培育难度大，檀香精油的提取率低，难以满足市场需求，导致檀香精油价格居高不下。利用基因工程及分子生物学手段，在微生物体内异源生物合成檀香烯和檀香醇是缓解这种供需矛盾的途径之一。文中对檀香烯和檀香醇合酶的研究现状，以及对宿主甲羟戊酸代谢路径的改造进行总结，并提出利用蛋白质工程技术对檀香烯合酶进行定向改造的思路，为檀香烯和檀香醇的生物合成优产研究提供参考。.
Keywords: biosynthesis; santalene; santalene synthase; santalol; terpene.