Plants as production platforms
Saijaliisa Kangasjärvi
Molecular Plant Biology
Pharmacity
University of Turku, Finland
[email protected]
Plant metabolism:
food and feed, energy, timber, pleasure, health...
Vitamin A
Vanilla
Vitamin C
Caffeine
Morphine
Primary production by photosynthesis:
an integrated circuit
• Efficient but vulnerable
• Sensitive sensor for environmental cues
• Must be tightly regulated
Gollan, Tikkanen and Aro 2016
CoE Molecular Biology of Primary Producers
Eva-Mari Aro (TY)
Esa Tyystjärvi (TY)
Jaakko Kangasjärvi (HY)
Ykä Helariutta (HY)
+ 11 early career PIs
Chloroplasts originate from cyanobacteria –
evolutionary studies can help us understand
photosynthetic reactions
Chloroplasts
100 µm
Cyanobacteria
(Dividing cell)
Photosynthesis forms a metabolic and regulatory hub
in plant stress tolerance
• Trade-off: plants invest in stress resistance or growth
• Understanding optimal photosynthetic production potential:
-> Biomass
-> Biomolecules (flavors, high-value compounds)
• UTU-MPB: long-term research focus on light stress and plant immunity
Stress,
bioactive
compounds
Growth
Environment
Complex secondary metabolites impact
plant immunity and human health
• Glucosinolate biosynthesis – a model in synthetic plant biology
Beneforte: result of 20 years of plant breeding
http://www.beneforte.com
Can synthetic biology facilitate practical applications?
Nordic possibilities: trees, oil seed plants, berries?
or
?
What is synthetic plant biology?
“…an emerging field that combines engineering
principles with plant biology toward the design and
production of new devices”
Current challenges
• Not enough sequenced plant genomes
• Incomplete methods for transformation
• Incomplete knowledge of useful secondary compounds
• Availability of registered biobricks has only started to increase (partsregistry.org)
• No standardized production of synthetic parts, IP issues
• Computational tools only starting to develop
ACS Synth. Biol., 2014, 3 (1), pp 1–12
Pioneering examples
in plant synthetic biology
•
•
•
•
Synthetic sensors
Synthetic vaccines
Synthetic medicines
Synthetic metabolic pathways
ACS Synth. Biol., 2014, 3 (1), pp 1–12
BTV (Bluetongue Virus) vaccine
•
Genes encoding BTV were expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana
•
Optimized production of blue tong virus particles
•
Worked as a vaccine in sheep
Plant Biotechnology Journal (2013) 11, pp. 839–846
Duckweed as a production system for
interferon and vaccines
http://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/projects/biolex/
Tomato as a biofactory
in antibody production
Rotavirus
http://www.ibmcp.upv.es/FGB/engineering/engineering.html
Plants produce thousands of compounds
applicable as madicines and flavors
Alkaloidi
Kasvilaji
Punatalvio
• Revealing the biosynthetic pathways
is a hot topic in plant biology
Plants can provide carbon-based raw materials
for industrial purposes
• Isoprene – raw material for synthetic rubber
• Isoprene synthase enzyme is only found in rubber tree –
hence a limited natural resource
• DuPont ja The Goodyear Tire & Rubber:
BioIsoprene™ monomer
Recognition of rubber biosynthesis pathway –
but industrial production in microbes
https://www.bio.org/articles/current-uses-synthetic-biology
Thank you for your attention!