Advertisement

Retrospect and prospects of plant metabolic engineering

  • Manisha Chownk
  • Karnika Thakur
  • Sudesh Kumar Yadav
Review Article
First Online:
  • 69 Downloads

Abstract

With the advancement of biotechnological tools and techniques such as next generation sequencing, RNAomics, epigenomics, gene silencing, plant, microbe transformation, proteomics and metabolomics, the understanding of metabolic pathways and their manipulation for the desired characters became feasible. Metabolic engineering has been successful in the production of golden rice, bioprocess for artemisinin production, flavonoids in plant and microbes as well as generated biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in several crop plants. In view of the significance of metabolic engineering, this article includes recent techniques developed and their use in manipulation of glyoxalase metabolism for multiple abiotic stress tolerance in plants. The importance of engineering of flavonoids pathway for high value antioxidants production as well as improving the biotic and abiotic stress tolerance has been documented. Importance and success of metabolic engineering has been realized by its promising hope for sustainable technologies of bioactives production for mankind’s health as well as in the generation of improved crop varieties.

Keywords

Glyoxalase pathway Flavonoid pathway Biotic and abiotic stress Antioxidants 

Abbreviations

RNAi

RNA interference

MEG

Mobile genetic element

CFS

Cell free system

Gly I

Glyoaxalase I

Gly II

Glyoxalase II

MG

Methylglyoxal

GSH

Reduced glutathione

GSSG

Oxidized glutathione

SLG

S-Lactoylglutathione

MDA

Malondialdehyde

EL

Electrolyte leakage

This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to the CEO, CIAB for his continuous motivation and guidance. The financial support from Department of Science and Technology (DST), GOI for SERB-NPDF to Manisha and Department of Biotechnology (DBT), GOI for research work in the laboratory is duly acknowledged.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

References

  1. AbdElgawad H, Zinta G, Hegab MM, Pandey R, Asard H, Abuelsoud W (2016) High salinity induces different oxidative stress and antioxidant responses in maize seedlings organs. Front Plant Sci 7:276PubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  2. Alagoz Y, Gurkok T, Zhang B, Unver T (2016) Manipulating the biosynthesis of bioactive compound alkaloids for next-generation metabolic engineering in opium poppy using CRISPR-Cas 9 genome editing technology. Sci Rep 6:30910CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Almeida R, Allshire RC (2005) RNA silencing and genome regulation. Trends Cell Biol 15:251–258CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Alvarez MF, Inostroza-Blancheteau C, Timmermann T, González M, Arce-Johnson P (2013) Overexpression of GlyI and GlyII genes in transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum Mill.) plants confers salt tolerance by decreasing oxidative stress. Mol Biol Rep 40:3281–3290CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Alvarez-Gerding X, Cortés-Bullemore R, Medina C, Romero-Romero JL, Inostroza-Blancheteau C, Aquea F, Arce-Johnson P (2015) Improved salinity tolerance in carrizo citrange rootstock through overexpression of glyoxalase system genes. Biomed Res Int 2015:827951CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Baisakh N, Datta S (2004) Metabolic pathway engineering for nutrition enrichment. Molecular biology and biotechnology of plant organelles. Springer, Berlin, pp 527–542CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Bhardwaj J, Gangwar I, Panzade G, Shankar R, Yadav SK (2016) Global de novo protein–protein interactome elucidates interactions of drought-responsive proteins in horse gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum). J Proteome Res 15:1794–1809CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Bharti P, Mahajan M, Vishwakarma AK, Bhardwaj J, Yadav SK (2015) AtROS1 overexpression provides evidence for epigenetic regulation of genes encoding enzymes of flavonoid biosynthesis and antioxidant pathways during salt stress in transgenic tobacco. J Exp Bot 66:5959–5969CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Bhomkar P, Upadhyay CP, Saxena M, Muthusamy A, Prakash NS, Pooggin M, Hohn T, Sarin NB (2008) Salt stress alleviation in transgenic Vigna mungo L. Hepper (blackgram) by overexpression of the glyoxalase I gene using a novel Cestrum yellow leaf curling virus (CmYLCV) promoter. Mol Breed 22:169–181CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Brodowska KM (2017) Natural flavonoids: classification, potential role, and application of flavonoid analogues. Eur J Biol Res 7(2):108–123Google Scholar
  11. Caverzan A, Casassola A, Brammer SP (2016) Antioxidant responses of wheat plants under stress. Genet Mol Biol 39:1–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Chen ZY, Brown RL, Damann KE, Cleveland TE (2004) Identification of a maize kernel stress-related protein and its effect on aflatoxin accumulation. Phytopathology 94:938–945CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Dangl JL, Horvath DM, Staskawicz BJ (2013) Pivoting the plant immune system from dissection to deployment. Science 341:746–751CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. DellaPenna D (2001) Plant metabolic engineering. Plant Physiol 125:160–163CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Dubrovina AS, Kiselev KV (2017) Regulation of stilbene biosynthesis in plants. Planta 246:597–623CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Dudley QM, Anderson KC, Jewett MC (2016) Cell-free mixing of Escherichia coli crude extracts to prototype and rationally engineer high-titer Mevalonate synthesis. ACS Synth Biol 5:1578–1588CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Falcone FML, Rius SP, Casati P (2012) Flavonoids: biosynthesis, biological functions, and biotechnological applications. Front Plant Sci 3:222Google Scholar
  18. Ghosh A, Pareek A, Sopory SK, Singla-Pareek SLA (2014) Glutathione responsive rice glyoxalase II, OsGLYII-2, functions in salinity adaptation by maintaining better photosynthesis efficiency and anti-oxidant pool. Plant J 80:93–105CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Ghosh A, Kushwaha HR, Hasan MR, Pareek A, Sopory SK, Singla-Pareek SL (2016) Presence of unique glyoxalase III proteins in plants indicates the existence of shorter route for methylglyoxal detoxification. Sci Rep 6:18358CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. González-Villagra J, Kurepin LV, Reyes-Díaz MM (2017) Evaluating the involvement and interaction of abscisic acid and miRNA156 in the induction of anthocyanin biosynthesis in drought-stressed plants. Planta 246:299–312CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Guleria P, Yadav SK (2013) Agrobacterium mediated transient gene silencing (AMTS) in Stevia rebaudiana: insights into steviol glycoside biosynthesis pathway. PLoS ONE 8:e74731CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Guleria P, Masand S, Yadav SK (2015) Diversion of carbon flux from gibberellin to steviol biosynthesis by over-expressing SrKA13H induced dwarfism and abnormality in pollen germination and seed set behavior of transgenic Arabidopsis. J Exp Bot 66:3907–3916CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Gupta OP, Karkute SG, Banerjee S, Meena NL, Dahuja A (2017a) Contemporary understanding of miRNA-based regulation of secondary metabolites biosynthesis in plants. Front Plant Sci 8:374PubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  24. Gupta BK, Sahoo KK, Ghosh A, Tripathi AK, Anwar K, Das P, Singh AK, Pareek A, Sopory SK, Singla-Pareek SL (2017b) Manipulation of glyoxalase pathway confers tolerance to multiple stresses in rice. Plant Cell Environ.  https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.12968 CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  25. Hille F, Charpentier E (2016) CRISPR-Cas: biology, mechanisms and relevance. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 371(1707):20150496CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  26. Hossain MA, Hossain MZ, Fujita M (2009) Stress-induced changes of methylglyoxal level and glyoxalase I activity in pumpkin seedlings and cDNA cloning of glyoxalase I gene. Aust J Crop Sci South Cross J 3:53–64Google Scholar
  27. Howat S, Park B, Oh IS, Jin YW, Lee EK, Loake GJ (2014) Paclitaxel: biosynthesis, production and future prospects. New Biotechnol 31(3):242–245CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Ishino Y, Shinagawa H, Makino K, Amemura M, Nakata A (1987) Nucleotide sequence of the iap gene, responsible for alkaline phosphatase isozyme conversion in Escherichia coli, and identification of the gene product. J Bacteriol 169(12):5429–5433CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Itoh A, Ohashi Y, Soga T, Mori H, Nishioka T, Tomita M (2004) Application of capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry to synthetic in vitro glycolysis studies. Electrophoresis 25:1996–2002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. Jiang CJ, Shimono M, Maeda S, Inoue H, Mori M, Hasegawa M, Sugano S, Takatsuji H (2009) Suppression of the rice fatty-acid desaturase gene OsSSI2 enhances resistance to blast and leaf blight diseases in rice. Mol Plant Microbe Interact 22(7):820–829CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Jiang N, Doseff A, Grotewold E (2016) Flavones: from biosynthesis to health benefits. Plants 5:27CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Kaur C, Sharma S, Singla-Pareek SL, Sopory SK (2016) Methylglyoxal detoxification in plants: role of glyoxalase pathway. Indian J Plant Physiol 21:377–390CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Kim D, Rossi J (2017) RNAi mechanisms and applications. Biotechniques 44:613–616CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Kumar RR, Prasad S (2011) Metabolic engineering of bacteria. Indian J Microbiol 51:403–409CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Kumar V, Nadda G, Kumar S, Yadav SK (2013) Transgenic tobacco overexpressing tea cDNA encoding dihydroflavonol 4-reductase and anthocyanidin reductase induces early flowering and provides biotic stress tolerance. PLoS ONE 8:e65535CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. Kwon K, Choi D, Hyun JK, Jung HS, Baek K, Park C (2013) Novel glyoxalases from Arabidopsis thaliana. FEBS J 280:3328–3339CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Lau W, Fischbach MA, Osbourn A, Sattely ES (2014) Key applications of plant metabolic engineering. PLoS Biol 12:e1001879CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  38. Li H et al (2011) Characterization of the stress associated microRNAs in Glycine max by deep sequencing. BMC Plant Biol 11:170CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  39. Lin F, Xu J, Shi J, Li H, Li B (2010) Molecular cloning and characterization of a novel glyoxalase I gene TaGly I in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Mol Biol Rep 37:729–735CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Lu X, Tang K, Li P (2016) Plant metabolic engineering strategies for the production of pharmaceutical terpenoids. Front Plant Sci 7:1647PubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  41. Ma D, Sun D, Wang C, Li Y, Guo T (2014) Expression of flavonoid biosynthesis genes and accumulation of flavonoid in wheat leaves in response to drought stress. Plant Physiol Biochem 80:60–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Mahajan M, Ahuja PS, Yadav SK (2011) Post-transcriptional silencing of flavonol synthase mRNA in Tobacco leads to fruits with arrested seed set. PLoS ONE 6:e28315CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  43. Misawa N (2011) Pathway engineering for functional isoprenoids. Curr Opin Biotechnol 22:627–633CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  44. Misra K, Banerjee AB, Ray S, Ray M (1995) Glyoxalase III from Escherichia coli: a single novel enzyme for the conversion of methylglyoxal into D-lactate without reduced glutathione. Biochem J 305(3):999–1003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  45. Mohanpuria P, Kumar V, Ahuja PS (2011) Yadav SK (2011) Producing low-caffeine tea through post-transcriptional silencing of caffeine synthase mRNA. Plant Mol Biol 76:523–534CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  46. Moore SJ, MacDonald JT, Freemont PS (2017) Cell-free synthetic biology for in vitro prototype engineering. Biochem Soc Trans 45:785–791CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  47. Nakayama T (2002) Enzymology of aurone biosynthesis. J Biosci Bioeng 94:487–491CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  48. Noctor G et al (1998) Glutathione: biosynthesis, metabolism and relationship to stress tolerance explored in transformed plants. J Exp Bot 49:623–647Google Scholar
  49. Ono E et al (2006) Yellow flowers generated by expression of the aurone biosynthetic pathway. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103:11075–11080CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  50. Pollak PE, Vogt T, Mo Y, Taylor LP (1993) Chalcone synthase and flavonol accumulation in stigmas and anthers of Petunia hybrida. Plant Physiol 102:925–932CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  51. Reinisalo M, Karlund A, Koskela A, Kaarniranta K, Karjalainen RO (2015) Polyphenol stilbenes: molecular mechanisms of defence against oxidative stress and aging-related Diseases. Oxid Med Cell Longev 2015:1–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  52. Schijlen EGWM et al (2007) RNA interference silencing of chalcone synthase, the first step in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway, leads to parthenocarpic tomato fruits. Plant Physiol 144:1520–1530CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  53. Shen X et al (2014) A role for PacMYBA in ABA-regulated anthocyanin biosynthesis in red-colored sweet cherry cv. Hong Deng (Prunus avium L.). Plant Cell Physiol 55:862–880CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  54. Singla-Pareek SL, Reddy MK, Sopory SK (2003) Genetic engineering of the glyoxalase pathway in tobacco leads to enhanced salinity tolerance. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100:14672–14677CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  55. Singla-Pareek SL, Yadav SK, Pareek A, Reddy MK, Sopory SK (2006) Transgenic tobacco overexpressing glyoxalase pathway enzymes grow and set viable seeds in zinc-spiked soils. Plant Physiol 140:613–623CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  56. Singla-Pareek SL, Yadav SK, Pareek A, Reddy MK, Sopory SK (2008) Enhancing salt tolerance in a crop plant by overexpression of glyoxalase II. Transgenic Res 17:171–180CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  57. Subedi KP, Choi D, Kim I, Min B, Park C (2011) Hsp31 of Escherichia coli K-12 is glyoxalase III. Mol Microbiol 81:926–936CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  58. Tan H et al (2015) Trichome and artemisinin regulator 1 is required for trichome development and artemisinin biosynthesis in Artemisia annua. Mol Plant 8:1396–1411CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  59. Tatsis EC, O’Connor SE (2016) New developments in engineering plant metabolic pathways. Curr Opin Biotechnol 42:126–132CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  60. Veena, Reddy VS, Sopory SK (1999) Glyoxalase I from Brassica juncea: molecular cloning, regulation and its over-expression confer tolerance in transgenic tobacco under stress. Plant J 17:385–395CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  61. Weathers PJ, Elkholy S, Wobbe KK (2006) Artemisinin: the biosynthetic pathway and its regulation in Artemisia annua, a terpenoid-rich species. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Plant 42:309–317CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  62. Wu C et al (2013) Sugar beet M14 glyoxalase I gene can enhance plant tolerance to abiotic stresses. J Plant Res 126:415–425CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  63. Wurtzel ET, Grotewold E (2006) Plant metabolic engineering. In: Lee SKB (ed) The encyclopedia of chemical processing. Marcel Dekker, New York, pp 2191–2200Google Scholar
  64. Xu Z, Li J, Guo X, Jin S, Zhang X (2016) Metabolic engineering of cottonseed oil biosynthesis pathway via RNA interference. Sci Rep 6:33342CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  65. Yadav SK, Singla-Pareek SL, Ray M, Reddy MK, Sopory SK (2005a) Methylglyoxal levels in plants under salinity stress are dependent on glyoxalase I and glutathione. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 337:61–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  66. Yadav SK, Singla-Pareek SL, Reddy MK, Sopory SK (2005b) Transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing glyoxalase enzymes resist an increase in methylglyoxal and maintain higher reduced glutathione levels under salinity stress. FEBS Lett 579:6265–6271CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  67. Yadav SK et al (2007) Characterization and functional validation of glyoxalase II from rice. Protein Expr Purif 51:126–132CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  68. Yan G et al (2016) Identification and characterization of a glyoxalase I gene in a rapeseed cultivar with seed thermotolerance. Front Plant Sci 7:150PubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  69. Yan G et al (2018) Genome-wide analysis and expression profiles of glyoxalase gene families in Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L.). PLoS ONE 13:e0191159CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  70. Zubay GG, Englesberg E (1971) Cell-free studies on the regulation of the arabinose operon. Nature New Biol 233(40):164CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Society for Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  • Manisha Chownk
    • 1
  • Karnika Thakur
    • 1
  • Sudesh Kumar Yadav
    • 1
  1. 1.Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (CIAB)MohaliIndia

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options