Fungal polyketide biosynthesis as a platform for designer natural products

Covering: 2010 to 2025Polyketides constitute a vast family of structurally and functionally diverse natural products that underpin numerous pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and materials. Among them, fungal typve I iterative polyketide synthases (iPKSs) orchestrate highly programmable catalytic cycles that transform simple acyl-CoA precursors into architecturally complex molecules. Understanding the programming logic of these multidomain enzymes has revealed how chain-extension, reduction, and cyclization patterns are encoded, offering a foundation for rational pathway engineering. Recent advances in structural biology, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) analysis, and computational modelling have clarified the conformational dynamics of iPKSs and their collaborating enzymes, while combinatorial biosynthetic strategies now enable the creation of non-natural scaffolds and expanded chemical diversity. Parallel progress in fungal and yeast cell-factory engineering-spanning metabolic rewiring, organelle compartmentalization, and dynamic control-has substantially improved the efficiency and scalability of polyketide production. This review integrates mechanistic insights with biotechnological innovation, highlighting emerging rules for programmable PKS design and discussing future directions toward AI-assisted, high-throughput platforms for sustainable industrial biosynthesis of fungal polyketides.