Reconstructing fungal natural product biosynthetic pathways

Large scale fungal genome sequencing has revealed a multitude of potential natural product biosynthetic pathways that remain uncharted. Here we describe some of the methods that have been used to explore them via heterologous gene expression. We focus on filamentous fungal hosts and discuss the technological challenges and successes behind the reconstruction of fungal natural product pathways. Optimised, efficient heterologous expression of reconstructed biosynthetic pathways promises progress in the discovery of novel compounds that could be utilised by the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries.