Phenazine natural products are a class of colored nitrogen-containing heterocycles produced by various microorganisms mainly originating from marine and terrestrial sources. The tricyclic ring molecules show various chemical structures and the decorating groups dedicate extensive pharmacological activities, including antimicrobial, anticancer, antiparasitic, anti-inflammatory, and insecticidal. These secondary metabolites provide natural materials for screening and developing medicinal compounds in the field of medicine and agriculture due to biological activities. The review presents a systematic summary of the literature on natural phenazines in the past decade, including over 150 compounds, such as hydroxylated, O-methylated, N-methylated, N-oxide, terpenoid, halogenated, glycosylated phenazines, saphenic acid derivatives, and other phenazine derivatives, along with their characterized antimicrobial and anticancer activities. This review may provide guidance for the investigation of phenazines in the future.

Phenazines represent a promising class of natural products with diverse biological activities, including antitumor, antiparasitic and antibacterial properties. Among them, phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA)-a registered biopesticide-stands out for its broad-spectrum antifungal efficacy, low environmental toxicity and potential as a lead structure for developing anti-tumor and antituberculosis agents. However, the chemical synthesis of PCA derivatives is often hindered by harsh reaction conditions, toxic byproducts and poor selectivity, limiting their sustainable production. In contrast, biosynthesis emerges as a green and scalable alternative, yet efficient microbial platforms for structurally diverse PCA derivatives remain underdeveloped. To address this gap, we engineered Pseudomonas chlororaphis H18 into a versatile cell factory for PCA derivative biosynthesis. We first characterized the substrate promiscuity of the S-adenosylmethionine (SAM)-dependent methyltransferase Pcm2, demonstrating its capacity to catalyze methylation and ethylation of many aromatic carboxylic acids. This catalytic versatility broadens the scope of PCA derivatives that can be accessed through biosynthesis. By integrating the pcm2 gene into the P. chlororaphis H18 genome, we established de novo pathways for two key derivatives: phenazine-1-carboxymethyl (PCM) and 2-hydroxy-phenazine-1-carboxymethyl (2-OH-PCM) for the first time, with PCM having been reported to exhibit superior fungicidal activity against the tobacco brown spot pathogen, Alternaria alternata, compared to PCA. To enhance titers of PCM and 2-OH-PCM, we implemented a systematic metabolic engineering strategy comprising: (1) increasing intracellular SAM supply, (2) overexpressing key genes, (3) knocking out the negative regulators and (4) disrupting competitive pathway. The engineered strain H18A4 produced 124.6 mg/L PCM and 130.8 mg/L 2-OH-PCM in KB medium. To further increase production of PCM and prevent PCA hydroxylation, we disrupted the phzO gene to block conversion to hydroxylated derivatives, increased pcm2 gene copy number and optimized the fermentation medium. The resulting engineered strain H18A6 produced 1.37 g/L PCM in fed-batch fermentation-a marked advance toward scalable, bio-based production of this high-value compound. This study fills a technical gap by establishing a novel biosynthetic route for diverse PCA derivatives, overcoming the limitations of chemical synthesis and expanding the scope of sustainable natural product production. And the integrated metabolic engineering strategy (spanning enzyme characterization, pathway construction, metabolic flux optimization and process refinement) validated herein offers a reusable template for engineering microbial cell factories for complex high-value natural products. Ultimately, this study contributes to the green production of functionally complex phenazine-based compounds for agricultural and pharmaceutical applications.

Phenazines are important nitrogen-containing heterocycles with diverse applications in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Alkoxylated phenazines, in