Synthetic biology approaches for the production of plant secondary metabolites in microalgae

主题：工业生物技术和生物能源植物产生各种各样的次生代谢物，这些代谢物可以作为燃料、商品化学品和治疗药物在工业上应用。然而，它们的产量往往太低，开采在经济上不可行。另一种方法涉及将这些天然产物的生物合成所需的代谢途径从植物转移到更适合工业生产的宿主。微藻具有独特的特性，包括它们在二氧化碳和废水等废物流上进行光养生长的能力，这使它们成为这种寄主的诱人前景。然而，与酵母等更成熟的平台相比，微藻作为工业宿主相对不发达。合成生物学是基因工程的一个新发展，旨在利用系统工程的方法促进生物系统的合理设计和修改。本博士项目将利用合成生物学中开发的工具和技术，对微藻寄主中植物次生代谢物的代谢工程进行研究。这将涉及发现植物中的途径，将这些途径转移到藻类中，并利用在此过程中获得的知识构建合成代谢途径，产生新的产品。ENWW:-用于鉴定新型植物代谢途径的基因组分析-转录组学和代谢组学数据的系统生物学分析-用于自动组装和筛选合成代谢途径的计算工具

Theme: Industrial Biotechnology and BioenergyPlants produce a wide variety of secondary metabolites that may have industrial applications as fuels, commodity chemicals, and therapeutic drugs. However, they are often produced in quantities that are too low for extraction to be economically viable. An alternative approach involves transferring the metabolic pathways required for biosynthesis of these natural products from the plant to a host that is better suited for industrial production. Microalgae possess unique properties that make them attractive prospects for such a host, including their capacity for phototrophic growth on waste streams such as carbon dioxide and wastewater. However, microalgae are relatively underdeveloped as industrial hosts, compared to more established platforms such as yeast. Synthetic biology is a novel development of genetic engineering that aims to facilitate the rational design and modification of biological systems by using a systematic engineering approach. This PhD project will the leverage tools and techniques developed in synthetic biology towards the metabolic engineering of plant secondary metabolites in microalgal hosts. This will involve discovering pathways in plants, transferring these pathways to algae, and using the knowledge gained in the process to construct synthetic metabolic pathways that generate novel products.ENWW:- Genomic analysis for identification of novel plant metabolic pathways- Systems biology analysis of transcriptomic and metabolomic data- Computational tools for the automated assembly and screening of synthetic metabolic pathways