Genetic engineering of natural products in plants

We use genetic engineering to alter the natural product profile of transgenic plants to study the impact on the metabolome, transcriptome and plant insect behavior. Transgenic plants with genes involved in biosynthesis of natural products have been introduced and/or knocked out. An example of this is the ability to confer resistance to herbivory by expression of the cyanogenic glucoside pathway from Sorghum bicolor into Arabidopsis thaliana (Tattersall et al. 2001 (1), Kristensen 2005 (2), Morant 2007(3) (Metabolomics)). 

Metabolic engineering

 

References:

(1) Tattersall DB, Bak S, Jones PR, Olsen CE, Nielsen JK, Hansen ML, Høj PB, Møller BL (2001) Resistance to an herbivore through engineered cyanogenic glucoside synthesis. Science 293:1826-8.

 

(2) Kristensen C, Morant M, Olsen CE, Ekstrøm CT, Galbraith DW, Møller BL, Bak S (2005) Metabolic engineering of dhurrin in transgenic Arabidopsis plants with marginal inadvertent effects on the metabolome and transcriptome. Proc Natl Acad Sci 102:1779-84.

 

(3) Morant AV, Jorgensen K, Jorgensen B, et al. (2007) Lessons learned from metabolic engineering of cyanogenic glucosides METABOLOMICS 3: 383-398.