Biosynthetic pathways are organized sequences of enzyme-catalyzed biochemical reactions through which microorganisms convert primary metabolic precursors into natural products and their structural derivatives. Within microbial natural-product biosynthesis, a pathway comprises the participating substrates, intermediates, cofactors, enzymes, regulatory elements, and transport or resistance functions that collectively determine the assembly and chemical maturation of a metabolite ^[1][2]. Core biosynthetic enzymes generate characteristic molecular scaffolds through reactions such as condensation, carbon–carbon bond formation, cyclization, and chain extension, while tailoring enzymes introduce structural features through oxidation, reduction, methylation, glycosylation, halogenation, acylation, or related transformations ^[1][3]. The pathway therefore encompasses the full biochemical route from precursor recruitment and scaffold formation to enzymatic modification, product release, and, where encoded, intracellular handling of the resulting natural product ^[2][3].