Phenolic compounds (PCs) are a group of compounds with various applications in nutraceutical

pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Their supply by plant extraction and chemical synthesis is often limited by low yield and high cost. Microbial production represents as a promising alternative for efficient and sustainable production of PCs. In this review

we summarize recent advances in this field

which include enzyme mining and engineering to construct artificial pathways

balance of enzyme expression to improve pathway efficiency

coculture engineering to alleviate metabolic burden and side-reactions

and the use of genetic circuits for dynamic regulation and high throughput screening. Finally

current challenges and future perspectives for efficient production of PCs are also discussed.