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Engineering Biology in Cambridge

 

Join the Bristol BioDesign Institue (BBI) for their latest webinar spotlightling Plant Synthetic Biology. Dr Eftychios Frangedakis (Hibberd Lab, Department of Plant Sciences) will discuss the development of standardised tools in the model orgainsm Marchantia polymorpha.

Keynote

Dr. Jenn Brophy, Stanford University

UK speakers

Dr. Eftychis Frangedakis, University of Cambridge and Open Plant
Dr. Quentin Dudley, Earlham Institute, John Innes Centre

How to Join

Slido meeting number: #45274

 

This BBI webinar is a spotlight on plant synthetic biology, featuring three rising stars in one dynamic interactive session. The session will include two 10-minute talks, one with Dr. Eftychis Frangedakis (University of Cambridge, OpenPlant) and the other with Dr. Quentin Dudley (Earlham Institute). The 20-minute keynote presentation will be given by Dr. Jenn Brophy (Stanford University). The presentations will then be followed by a Q&A session, using Slido. All three speakers have been making remarkable advances in plant synthetic biology research and we hope you can join them live on Zoom.


Genome engineering of Nicotiana benthamiana as an improved plant-based bioproduction system for medicinal alkaloids

Dr Quentin Dudley, Earlham Institute - John Innes Centre

The wild tobacco relative Nicotiana benthamiana is an ideal chassis for solar-powered production of plant metabolites since it allows high level transient expression of heterologous multi-enzyme pathways in just a few days. However, small molecule compounds and their intermediate pathway metabolites are often over-glycosylated, oxidized/reduced, acylated or modified with glutathione. Therefore, to improve N. benthamiana as a plant-based bioproduction platform, we are using the CRISPR-Cas9 genome engineering to deactivate native enzymes that make unwanted modifications to the 11-step pathway to strictosidine (the monoterpene indole alkaloid precursor to the anti-cancer drug vinblastine). We have used transcriptomic and phylogenetic analysis of an improved genome assembly to select candidate genes for inactivation from among thousands of possible enzymes and have generated several knockout lines. In parallel, we found that co-expression of a newly discovered cyclase from catmint relieves a key metabolic pathway bottleneck step. We anticipate that edited N. benthamiana lines will reduce unwanted metabolite derivatization and enable increased production of target metabolites.


Marchantia polymorpha: an emerging system for plant synthetic biology

Dr Eftychis Frangedakis, University of Cambridge and Open Plant

The bryophyte Marchantia polymorpha is a powerful experimental model for plant biology studies. Marchantia is also emerging as a promising system for plant synthetic biology application thanks to its unique combination of characteristics. It has a small size and simple morphology, grows rapidly under laboratory conditions and has a remarkable regenerative capacity. The dominant phase of its life cycle is haploid, it has a small genome and can reproduce asexually by means of clonal propagules called gemmae, which provide an excellent platform for live-tissue microscopy. Marchantia is also one of the few land plant species for which both nuclear and chloroplast transformation is well established. We have developed a series of standardised tools for whole-plant Marchantia engineering. The wide availability of all these resources will greatly facilitate the exploitation of both nuclear and chloroplast Marchantia engineering.

 

 

 

 

Originally published on the BBI website: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/biodesign-institute/events/2021/webinar---ecr-.html

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