Research Mission and Profile
Molecular Signal Processing
Bioorganic Chemistry
Biochemistry of Plant Interactions
Cell and Metabolic Biology
Independent Junior Research Groups
Program Center MetaCom
Publications
Good Scientific Practice
Research Funding
Networks and Collaborative Projects
Symposia and Colloquia
Alumni Research Groups
Publications
Publications - Cell and Metabolic Biology
Publications
Recent progress in the field of synthetic biology has led to the creation of cells containing synthetic genomes. Although these first synthetic organisms contained copies of natural genomes, future work will be directed toward engineering of organisms with modified genomes and novel phenotypes. Much work, however, remains to be done to be able to routinely engineer novel biological functions. As a tool that will be useful for such purpose, we have recently developed a modular cloning system (MoClo) that allows high throughput assembly of multiple genetic elements. We present here new features of this cloning system that allow to increase the speed of assembly of multigene constructs. As an example, 68 DNA fragments encoding basic genetic elements were assembled using three one-pot cloning steps, resulting in a 50 kb construct containing 17 eukaryotic transcription units. This cloning system should be useful for generating the multiple construct variants that will be required for developing gene networks encoding novel functions, and fine-tuning the expression levels of the various genes involved.
Publications
Seeds of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) accumulate high amounts of antinutritive sinapate esters (SE) with sinapoylcholine (sinapine) as major component, accompanied by sinapoylglucose. These phenolic compounds compromise the use of the protein-rich valuable seed meal. Hence, a substantial reduction of the SE content is considered essential for establishing rape as a protein crop. The present work focuses on the suppression of sinapine synthesis in rape. Therefore, rape (spring cultivar Drakkar) was transformed with a dsRNAi construct designed to silence seed-specifically the BnSGT1 gene encoding UDP-glucose:sinapate glucosyltransferase (SGT1). This resulted in a substantial decrease of SE content in T2 seeds with a reduction reaching 61%. In T2 seeds a high and significant correlation between the contents of sinapoylglucose and all other sinapate esters has been observed. Among transgenic plants, no significant difference in other important agronomic traits, such as oil, protein, fatty acid and glucosinolate content in comparison to the control plants was observed. Maximal reduction of total SE content by 76% was observed in seeds of one homozygous T2 plant (T3 seeds) carrying the BnSGT1 suppression cassette as a single copy insert. In conclusion, this study is an initial proof of principle that suppression of sinapoylglucose formation leads to a strong reduction of SE in rape seeds and is thus a promising approach in establishing rape, currently an important oil crop, as a protein crop as well.
This page was last modified on 27 Jan 2025 .
