Heterologous production of Cannabis sativa-derived specialised metabolites of medicinal significance – Insights into engineering strategies

Cannabis sativa L. has been known for at least 2000 years as a source of important, medically significant specialised metabolites and several bio-active molecules have been enriched from multiple chemotypes. However, due to the many levels of complexity in both the commercial cultivation of cannabis and extraction of its specialised metabolites, several heterologous production approaches are being pursued in parallel. In this review, we outline the recent achievements in engineering strategies used for heterologous production of cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids along with their strength and weakness. We provide an overview of the specialised metabolism pathway in C. sativa and a comprehensive list of the specialised metabolites produced along with their medicinal significance. We highlight cannabinoid-like molecules produced by other species. We discuss the key biosynthetic enzymes and their heterologous production using various hosts such as microbial and eukaryotic systems. A brief discussion on complementary production strategies using co-culturing and cell-free systems is described. Various approaches to optimise specialised metabolite production through co-expression, enzyme engineering and pathway engineering are discussed. We derive insights from recent advances in metabolic engineering of hosts with improved precursor supply and suggest their application for the production of C. sativa speciality metabolites. We present a collation of non-conventional hosts with speciality traits that can improve the feasibility of commercial heterologous production of cannabis-based specialised metabolites. We provide a perspective of emerging research in synthetic biology, allied analytical techniques and plant heterologous platforms as focus areas for heterologous production of cannabis specialised metabolites in the future.