1,2,4-Butanetriol is a valuable chemical with wide applications in many fields. Currently, butanetriol is mainly synthesized by chemical methods, which are associated with harsh reaction conditions, poor selectivity, the production of numerous by-products, and environmental pollution. In recent years, the bioproduction of butanetriol has been successfully carried out from inexpensive sugars via biological routes, which have milder conditions and less environmental pollution compared with traditional petrochemical methods. Considering that d-xylose is the second most abundant sugar in nature, its conversion into products can significantly improve the economics of biomass-based processes. Two metabolic pathways of d-xylose phosphorylation (the isomerase pathway, which is mainly found in bacteria, and the oxo-reductive pathway, which is present in fungi) have been well studied. Non-phosphorylation pathways also exist, known as xylose oxidative pathways, and have many advantages over traditional phosphorylation pathways. Metabolic engineering of unconventional host strains using novel gene editing tools based on the Cas9/CRISPR system enables economical and sustainable production of butanetriol from renewable biomass. Significant advances in omics data analysis, along with artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, have become transformative approaches. These advanced tools enable systematic cell design, identification and prioritization of novel metabolic pathways, design of efficient enzymes with high efficiency, and fine-tuning of gene expression in different hosts to achieve maximum butanetriol production. The main objective of this article is to investigate novel and efficient butanetriol biosynthetic pathways in different hosts.