Cannabinoids are secondary metabolites produced in the glandular trichomes of cannabis plants. More than 180 are already known, the best-known being tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabigerol (CBD). The biosynthetic pathway of cannabinoids has only recently been investigated. The main precursors are olivetolic acid formed from the polyketide pathway and geranyl diphosphate (GPP) formed from the plastid 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate pathway (MEP). Olivetolic acid is then converted to cannabigerolic acid (CBGA), which is a central precursor for many cannabinoids. Cannabinoids have therapeutically useful properties such as anti inflammatory action, muscle relaxation, sedative effects, appetite stimulation, nausea relief and positive mood effects. And precisely because of this, the use of cannabinoids is a promising strategy that could overcome the lack of effective conventional treatments for many pathologies such as neurodegenerative diseases, epilepsy, chronic pain and cancer. However, the extraction and research of cannabinoids is hampered by many factors, some of which are strict cannabis cultivation legislation, low levels of cannabinoids in plants, and costly chemical synthesis. One of the possible solutions is the use of metabolic engineering of microorganisms, to enable the fermentation of cannabinoids. The foundation for large scale fermentation of cannabinoids has already been set, and in the future we will have to evaluate even more precisely and later overcome bottlenecks in order to achieve cannabinoid production at the industrial level.
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