Learning from nature's plant engineers: Hijacking metabolism and development beyond genetics.
Sarkiss AE, Shih PM
Synthetic Biology
Bugs and fungi have been quietly reprogramming plants for millions of years — galls, mycorrhizal takeovers, insect shelters — and decoding those hijacks may soon let growers coax plants into producing medicines or dyes without ever touching their DNA.
Plants are chemical factories, and all kinds of organisms — from soil bacteria to leaf-mining insects — have figured out sneaky ways to make plants produce things that benefit the hijacker. Researchers want to learn from these partnerships and takeovers to find new ways to make plants useful to us, without always resorting to gene editing. If we understand how a fungus tricks a plant into building it a cozy home, we might be able to use the same trick to make a plant produce a medicine or a stronger fiber.
Key Findings
Bacteria, fungi, and insects have independently evolved sophisticated mechanisms to redirect plant metabolism for their own nutritional and structural needs.
Current synthetic biology is heavily reliant on genetic engineering, but non-genetic routes to manipulating plant metabolism remain largely unexplored.
Studying interspecies interactions in non-model plant systems could reveal entirely new blueprints for engineering valuable compounds and materials from plants.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists are looking to bacteria, fungi, and insects for inspiration on how to rewire plant chemistry without genetic engineering. These organisms have evolved clever ways to hijack or reshape plant metabolism, and understanding their tricks could open entirely new toolkits for producing medicines, materials, and fuels from plants.
Abstract Preview
Plant metabolism underpins the food, fiber, and fuel that support our economy, driving strong interest in new strategies to rewire plant metabolism for emerging applications. While most synthetic b...
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