Platform for screening phosphomevalonate decarboxylase

1. A method to identify a second or mutant phosphomevalonate decarboxylase (PMD) with a higher PMD activity compared to a first PMD, comprising (a) culturing a medium comprising a first host cell expressing the first PMD and a second host cell expressing the second or mutant PMD wherein the first and second host cells have their respective PMD enzymatic activities coupled to the growth rates of the host cells, wherein the host cell is microorganism which produces IPP via the MEP pathway transformed with one or more polynucleotides encoding 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGR), 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A synthase (HMGS), mevalonate kinase (MK) and isopentenyl phosphate kinase (IPK) and treated with fosmidomycin, and (b) identifying the second host cell that has a higher growth rate than the first host cell, thereby identifying the second or mutant PMD having a higher PMD activity; wherein the host cell is a prokaryotic cell.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the prokaryotic cell is an Escherichia, Enterobacter, Azotobacter, Erwinia, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Klebsielia, Proteus, Salmonella, Serratia, Shigella, Rhizobia, Vitreoscilla, Paracoccus , or Clostridia cell.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the prokaryotic cell is an Escherichia cell.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the Escherichia cell is an Escherichia coli cell.