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The plastid genome as a chassis for synthetic biology-enabled metabolic engineering: players in gene expression

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Abstract

Owing to its small size, prokaryotic-like molecular genetics, and potential for very high transgene expression, the plastid genome (plastome) is an attractive plant synthetic biology chassis for metabolic engineering. The plastome exists as a homogenous, compact, multicopy genome within multiple-specialized differentiated plastid compartments. Because of this multiplicity, transgenes can be highly expressed. For coordinated gene expression, it is the prokaryotic molecular genetics that is an especially attractive feature. Multiple genes in a metabolic pathway can be expressed in a series of operons, which are regulated at the transcriptional and translational levels with cross talk from the plant’s nuclear genome. Key features of each regulatory level are reviewed, as well as some examples of plastome-enabled metabolic engineering. We also speculate about the transformative future of plastid-based synthetic biology to enable metabolic engineering in plants as well as the problems that must be solved before routine plastome-enabled synthetic circuits can be installed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the funding by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (Award no. DE-AR000660) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Award no. D17AC00016).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science, University of Tennessee, 2600 River Dr., Knoxville, TN, 37996-4561, USA

    Heidi S. Schindel & Scott C. Lenaghan

  2. Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee, 2431 Joe Johnson Dr., Knoxville, TN, 37996-4561, USA

    Agnieszka A. Piatek & C. Neal Stewart Jr.

  3. Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    C. Neal Stewart Jr. & Scott C. Lenaghan

  4. Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Scott C. Lenaghan

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  1. Heidi S. Schindel
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  2. Agnieszka A. Piatek
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  3. C. Neal Stewart Jr.
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  4. Scott C. Lenaghan
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HSS, AAP, SCL, and CNS all participated in writing the manuscript, which all authors have read and approved.

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Correspondence to C. Neal Stewart Jr. or Scott C. Lenaghan.

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Communicated by Mark C. Jordan.

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Schindel, H.S., Piatek, A.A., Stewart, C.N. et al. The plastid genome as a chassis for synthetic biology-enabled metabolic engineering: players in gene expression. Plant Cell Rep 37, 1419–1429 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-018-2323-4

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