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"It has eight sugars and a terpenoid in the middle. I mean, it makes the artemisinin biosynthetic pathway look like nothing," Keasling said.

Many of the defence compounds are terpenoid based, including the commercially valuable eucalyptus oil, which is composed largely of 1,8-cineole.

However, increasing lipid content and altering its type could have undesirable side effects: the green microalga Botryococcus accumulates nearly 40% of its biomass in the form of the terpenoid hydrocarbon botryococcene but at the expense of growth rate.