Abstract: Lycopene is a terpenoid pigment that has diverse applications in the fields of food and medicine. A prospective approach for lycopene production is by metabolic engineering in microbial hosts such as Escherichia coli.Isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase( IDI) is the key enzyme in lycopene biosynthetic pathway,and one of the most important targets during metabolic engineering. In this study,in order to systematic compare the effects of different IDI on lycopene production,the type1 and type2 genes of isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase were cloned from different species,including prokaryotic microbe,eukaryotic microbe,plant,archaea,and heterologous expressed in Escherichia coli.The effects of different IDI on lycopene production and the bioconversional conditions were investigated in a MEP- enhanced background in Escherichia coli.In the result,Sc IDI and Bs IDI were the most efficient IDI species for lycopene production and the yield of lycopene rose to 9.96 mg / g DCW,8.78 mg / g DCW.As observed after bioconversion for 8 h,the yield of lycopene was up to a maximum of 10.29 mg / g DCW.The results will provide new information for further metabolic engineering study involved in lycopene and terpenoid production.