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Metabolic Engineering of Secondary Plant Metabolism

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Plant Biotechnology: Principles and Applications

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Abstract

Metabolic engineering is a modulation of metabolic pathway(s) of the host either to increase the concentration of existing compounds or to produce a novel compound. It began with the engineering of microorganisms, and the concept has been extrapolated to plants opening newer promising perspectives. The high-value secondary metabolites such as drugs (e.g. paclitaxel, artemisinin and vincristine), dye and pigments, flavour and fragrances and food additives are the main target. Cloning and expression of gene(s) in host plant allow partial/complete reconstitution of biosynthetic pathways.

A major challenge for the commercialization of high-value secondary metabolites is their low production levels in planta. The continual demand for novel molecules with new or superior biological activities by the industry in recent years has resulted in a great interest in secondary metabolism. Metabolic engineering and pathway optimization with the aim to reduce costs and increase productivity are, therefore, the main focus of academia and industry.

Redirecting or stimulating a reaction/pathway requires an insight into the endogenous pathway(s) to understand the best intervention point(s). This chapter thus discusses the strategies developed to overcome bottlenecks for enhancing the production of high-value products in a heterologous background, without harming the host plant.

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Acknowledgments

The project fellowship award to Usha Kiran under UGC Major project and Fellowship awarded to Athar Ali under UGC-SAP programme, Government of India, is gratefully acknowledged. Assistance in manuscript preparation from Mr. Naved Quadri, CTPD, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi 110062, is also acknowledged by authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CTPD, Department of Biotechnology, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, 110062, India

    Usha Kiran & Athar Ali

  2. Division of Genetics & Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, SKUAST of Kashmir, 110062, New Delhi, India

    Kamaluddin

  3. Department of Biotechnology, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, 110062, India

    Malik Zainul Abdin

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  1. Usha Kiran
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  2. Athar Ali
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  3. Kamaluddin
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  4. Malik Zainul Abdin
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Correspondence to Malik Zainul Abdin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India

    Malik Zainul Abdin

  2. CTPD, Department of Biotechnology, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India

    Usha Kiran

  3. Division of Genetics & Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, SKUAST of Kashmir, New Delhi, India

    Kamaluddin

  4. CTPD, Department of Biotechnology, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India

    Athar Ali

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Kiran, U., Ali, A., Kamaluddin, Abdin, M.Z. (2017). Metabolic Engineering of Secondary Plant Metabolism. In: Abdin, M., Kiran, U., Kamaluddin, Ali, A. (eds) Plant Biotechnology: Principles and Applications. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2961-5_6

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