14 ERA-CAPS. Designing starch - harnessing carbohydrate polymer synthesis in plants

淀粉是大多数陆地植物和藻类产生的天然产物，具有显著的物理化学性质。它由两种葡萄糖聚合物组成：直链淀粉和支链淀粉，直链淀粉是一种主要的线性聚合物，支链淀粉也含有分支点，导致树状结构。淀粉的简单成分与其复杂而高度有序的结构形成了鲜明的对比，在这种结构中，晶状层和非晶状层以明确和规则的方式交替。这种结构赋予了淀粉独特的物理化学性质，使其成为一种格外紧密的能量存储，对人类饮食和整个经济具有如此巨大的重要性。尽管经过了几十年的深入研究，但人们仍然不清楚淀粉粒生物发生是如何启动和发展的。涉及的酶数量相对较少，但尚不清楚它们的活性是如何协调以最终控制淀粉的结构和性质的。我们项目的目标是深刻理解复杂的聚合结构即淀粉颗粒形成过程中涉及的生物物理和生化过程的调节和控制。我们将应用这一认识在试管中重建淀粉的合成，并学习以有针对性的方式控制其物理和化学性质。通过在酵母中生产淀粉合成酶，我们将设计出具有新特性的淀粉。

Starch is a natural product produced by most land plants and algae with remarkable physicochemicalproperties. It is composed of two polymers of glucose: amylose, a predominantly linear polymer, and amylopectin, which also contains branch points, resulting in a tree-like structure. The simple constituents of starch is contrasted by its complex and highly ordered structure, in which crystalline and amorphous layers alternate in a defined and regular fashion. This structure gives starch uniquephysicochemical properties, which make it an exceptionally tightly packed energy storage that is ofsuch tremendous importance for the human diet and economy as a whole. Despite decades of intenseresearch, it is still not understood how precisely starch granule biogenesis initiates and progresses. Arelatively small number of enzymes are involved, but it is unclear how their activities are coordinatedin order to ultimately control the structure and properties of starch.The objective of our project is to gain a profound understanding of the regulation and control of thebiophysical and biochemical processes involved in the formation of the complex polymeric structurethat is the starch granule. We will apply this understanding to recreate the synthesis of starch in the test tubeand learn to control its physical and chemical properties in a targeted way. By producing starchsynthesising enzymes in yeast, an organism not natively producing starch, we will design starches withnew properties.