Controlled Compartmentation of Enzymes for Plant Metabolic Engineering

除了从石油中不可再生地生产，不可降解的塑料对环境和人类健康都构成了问题。生物可降解聚酯，如聚-3-羟基丁二酸酯(PHB)，正在作为一种减轻这些影响的方法出现，并可能在对塑料的日益依赖和需求的情况下变得至关重要。在植物中生产PHB已被证明是具有挑战性的，因为PHB的产生似乎会影响健康植物的生长和发育。我们提出了一种代谢工程策略，包括对植物中PHB的产生进行分区和时间控制。我们建议，这样的策略将减轻PHB生产对植物健康的负面影响，并使植物生产成为与石油衍生塑料竞争的产品。

As well as being produced non-renewably from petroleum, nondegradable plastic poses issues both to the environment and human health. Biodegradable polyesters, such as poly-3-hydroxybutarate (PHB), are emerging as a way of mitigating these effects, and may become critical given the increasing dependence on and demand of plastics. Producing PHBs in plants has proved to be challenging because PHB production seems to affect the growth and development of a healthy plant. We propose a metabolic engineering strategy involving compartmentation and temporal control over PHB production in plants. We suggest that such a strategy will alleviate the negative effects of PHB production on plant health and allow for plant production to become competitive with petroleum-derived plastics.