Synthetic Biology in more complex organisms:

Plant Cell Engineering

Vardis Ntoukakis (B175)

V.Ntoukakis@warwick.ac.uk
Synthetic Biology in more complex organisms:
Plant Cell Engineering ‒ outline:
Session 1 -
Why plant synthetic biology?
Challenges of plant synthetic biology
Ethical issues

Session 2 - 3
Available tools for synthetic biology in plants
Case studies of plant synthetic biology
 Why plant synthetic biology?

food

energy-biofuels
natural products

A transition to multicellular systems is the next

logical step for synthetic biologists and plants
will provide an ideal platform for this new
phase of research.
Synthetic Biology basic principles:
Synthetic biology aims to apply engineering principles to the design and alteration of natural
systems or to the de novo construction of artificial biological devices and systems that exhibit
predictable behaviors……

The development of plant synthetic biology can be:

top down: excising plants can be tweaked for higher efficiency

bottom up: a new plant can be built from scratch using individual parts
Plant Synthetic Biology challenges:
Despite the advantages of plant models for synthetic biology and their potential
applications, it remains a fact that plants are more complicated than existing synthetic
biology models because: (epigenetics and posttranslational modifications)
1. have interconnected complex signalling pathways
Plant Synthetic Biology challenges:
Despite the advantages of plant models for synthetic biology and their potential
applications, it remains a fact that plants are more complicated than existing
synthetic biology models because: (epigenetics and posttranslational modifications)
1. have interconnected complex signalling pathways Lars B. Scharff and Ralph Bock
2. more organs (chloroplasts) and cell walls The Plant Journal, 2014
Plant Synthetic Biology challenges:
Despite the advantages of plant models for synthetic biology and their potential
applications, it remains a fact that plants are more complicated than existing
synthetic biology models because: (epigenetics and posttranslational modifications)
1. have interconnected complex signalling pathways
2. more organs (chloroplasts) and cell walls
3. very large genomes - # genes, # polyploidy

Escherichia coli Arabidopsis Mouse Human

# Genes 4,300 27,000 25,000 24,000

Plant Synthetic Biology challenges:
Despite the advantages of plant models for synthetic biology and their potential
applications, it remains a fact that plants are more complicated than existing
synthetic biology models because: (epigenetics and posttranslational modifications)
1. have interconnected complex signalling pathways
2. more organs (chloroplasts) and cell walls
3. very large genomes
distal transcriptional enhancers

Weber, Trends in Plant Science 2016

Plant Synthetic Biology challenges:
Despite the advantages of plant models for synthetic biology and their potential
applications, it remains a fact that plants are more complicated than existing
synthetic biology models because: (epigenetics and posttranslational modifications)
1. have interconnected complex signalling pathways
2. more organs (chloroplasts) and cell walls
3. very large genomes

chromatin packing correlate with the genomic and epigenomic landscapes

Liu , Genome Biology 2015

Plant Synthetic Biology challenges:
Despite the advantages of plant models for synthetic biology and their potential
applications, it remains a fact that plants are more complicated than existing
synthetic biology models because: (epigenetics and posttranslational modifications)
1. have interconnected complex signalling pathways
2. more organs (chloroplasts) and cell walls
3. very large genomes cell type specific gene expression
4. multicellular organism

Kenneth Birnbaum et al. Science 2003;302:1956-1960

Plant Synthetic Biology challenges:
Despite the advantages of plant models for synthetic biology and their potential applications,
it remains a fact that plants are more complicated than existing synthetic biology models
because: (epigenetics and posttranslational modifications)
1. have interconnected complex signalling pathways
2. more organs (chloroplasts) and cell walls
3. very large genomes
4. multicellular organism
5. ethical issues of synthetic biology and the Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) phobia

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