CeBiTec Colloquium (unscheduled)
Wednesday, September 21st 2016, 12:30 pm
G2-104, CeBiTec Building
Dr. Ashutosh Pandey
Alexander von Humboldt Post Doctoral Research Fellow, CeBiTec, Bielefeld University
Potential of Arabidopsis transcription factors AtMYB11, AtMYB12 and AtMYB111 for engineering of flavonoids and isoflavonoids in commonly consumed crop plants
Pathway engineering of targeted flavonoids require modulation of expression of many genes due to complexity in the pathway. Three functionally redundant R2R3 MYB type transcription factors (TFs) namely AtMYB11, AtMYB12 and AtMYB111 are flavonol specific activators that target multiple genes of the flavonoid pathway in Arabidopsis. We utilized these TFs to increase biosynthesis of flavonols and isoflavones in plants. Herein, we present our data related to expression of these TFs in tobacco and tomato that resulted in enhanced expression of genes related to flavonoid biosynthesis. However, enhanced expression led to differential accumulation of specific flavonoids in each case. Global gene expression and limited metabolite profiling of leaves in the transgenic lines expressing AtMYB12 revealed that AtMYB12 regulated a number of pathways, leading to flux availability for the phenylpropanoid pathway in general and flavonol biosynthesis in particular. The tobacco transgenic lines developed resistance against the insect pests Spodoptera litura and Helicoverpa armigera due to enhanced accumulation of rutin. We developed transgenic tobacco lines constitutively co-expressing AtMYB12 and GmIFS1 (soybean IFS) genes that led to elevated flavonol and isoflavone content in transgenic leaves. Further, transgenic extracts were examined to have ostoprotective activity in rats suggesting the utility of such plants to improve bone health.
My research work at National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI), Mohali, was focused on metabolic engineering of provitamin A biosynthesis in banana. Our results suggest that phytoene synthase1 of Nendran (NEN-PSY1) play an important role in controlling the substrate flux towards provitamin A biosynthesis in ripe fruit-pulp. We have also utilized CRISPR/Cas9 for mutagenesis of lycopene epsilon cyclase gene for enhanced β-carotene in banana. This can have potential use in metabolic engineering to enhance provitamin A content in banana.
Host: Prof. Dr. Bernd Weisshaar