In this meeting a series of metabolic engineering programs representing each of the differing strategies for natural product biosynthesis will be presented and the potential merits of plant Vs microbial industrial biotechnology discussed, along with projections as to how each might benefit from synthetic biology based approaches. In addition to reviewing the latest development in plant natural product biochemistry and molecular biology, the meeting will be formative in shaping thinking as to how and where new approaches like synthetic biology can be best applied in industrial biotechnology in the coming years.