[5] Bacteria such as Escherichia coli have been engineered for co-expressing biosynthesis genes of both the MEP and the MVA pathway.
[8] The reactions of the MEP pathway are as follows, taken primarily from Eisenreich and co-workers, except where the bold labels are additional local abbreviations to assist in connecting the table to the scheme above:[10][9] Dxs, the first enzyme of the pathway, is feedback inhibited by the products IPP and DMAPP.
It can be inhibited by the natural product fosmidomycin, which is under study as a starting point to develop a candidate antibacterial or antimalarial drug.
[16] The MEP pathway has been extensively studied and engineered Escherichia coli, a commonly used microbial species for laboratory research and application.
Idi which interconverts IPP to DMAPP and vice versa seems to be important for providing the respective substrate that is needed upon introduction of a heterologous carbon sink in engineered strains.