Developing plant synthetic biology platforms to elucidate the role of natural products

项目概要和摘要 项目摘要和摘要将不作任何更改，并将此奖项从加州大学戴维斯分校转移到加州大学 伯克利接收机构的变化与安全和/或工作环境问题无关（例如，由于 对涉及PD/PI的骚扰、欺凌、报复或敌对工作条件的担忧）。 植物产生丰富的天然产物，对人类的营养、疾病和整体 幸福然而，由于许多这些专门的代谢物的复杂性，我们在我们的研究中受到限制。 研究单个植物化学物质对人类健康影响的能力。最近，新兴的合成生物学领域 提供了将生物系统分解为单个组成部分的方法，使科学家能够逆转 设计并重建它们的生化组成。这种方法在很大程度上仅限于简单的生物体（例如，E. 大肠杆菌和酵母）;然而，植物提供了一个独特的平台来利用合成生物学。我的研究主要集中在 引入设计和工程学原理，合理调控植物代谢， 植物天然产物的生物合成和生理作用。可食用十字花科植物（例如，西兰花、小白菜） 由于吲哚芥子油苷衍生物的多样性，它们与癌症预防有关。然而，在这方面， 由于十字花科植物中产生的生物活性化合物的多样性， 精确定位可能负责癌症预防这样复杂特性的特定分子。结果很多 研究结果相互矛盾，硫代葡萄糖苷与其声称的营养成分之间的联系也很薄弱。 效益将特异性靶分子工程化到没有基础生物活性的新宿主中可以提供洞察力， 有助于在分子水平上阐明它们在人类健康中的作用。植物合成生物学平台的发展， 生产和提供特定浓度的目标植物天然产物将使未来的研究， 定量研究硫代葡萄糖苷对人体健康的益处和影响。

Project Summary and Abstract No change to the Project Summary and Abstrasct will be made with the transfer of this award from UC Davis to UC Berkeley. The change in recipient institution is not related to concerns about safety and/or work environments (e.g. due to concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation, or hostile working conditions) involving the PD/PI. Plants produce a wealth of natural products that have wide-ranging effects on human nutrition, disease, and overall wellbeing. However, because of the complexities of many of these specialized metabolites, we have been limited in our ability to study the effects of individual phytochemicals on human health. Recently, the nascent field of synthetic biology has provided the means to dissect biological systems into their individual components, enabling scientists to reverse engineer and reconstruct their biochemical makeup. This approach has largely been limited to simple organisms (e.g., E. coli and yeast); however, plants provide a unique platform to leverage synthetic biology. My research focuses on introducing design and engineering principles to rationally manipulate plant metabolism in order to investigate the biosynthesis and physiological roles of plant natural products. Edible cruciferous plants (e.g., broccoli, bok choy) have been implicated in cancer prevention, stemming from their diversity of indole glucosinolate derivatives. However, because of the vast diversity of bioactive compounds produced in cruciferous plants, it is challenging to tease apart and pinpoint the specific molecules that may be responsible for a trait as complex as cancer prevention. As a result, many studies have resulted in conflicting findings and tenuous links between glucosinolates and their claimed nutritional benefits. Engineering specific target molecules into novel hosts with no basal biological activity may provide insight and help clarify their role in human health at a molecular level. The development of plant synthetic biology platforms to produce and deliver specific concentrations of target plant natural products will enable future studies to more quantitatively study the claimed benefits and effects of glucosinolates on human health.