Plant made chemicals

Plants biosynthesize more than a million types of biochemicals including starch, cellulose, plant hormones, latex, and alkaloids. These plant-made molecules are widely used and, in some case, are essential for human life. Not only our food, many of pharmaceuticals, health products, agricultural compounds, and various other materials are derived from plants. Owing to their more than 450 million years of evolution, plants have gained a massive variety of biosynthesis pathways. The rise in a sustainability-oriented consumer culture and bioeconomy have prompted increased demand for expanded production of plant-derived products. However, our knowledge and tools to deliver more efficient plant bioproduction remain a limitation. Recent technological advances and increased affordability of genomic analytical techniques have accelerated biochemical elucidation of new pathways and created opportunity for more efficient plant bioproduction.

Mechanisms that underlie the plant biosynthesis

A number of enzymes, the genes for which are encoded in the plant genome, catalyse bioreactions in the course of plant biosynthesis. Redundancy in these biosynthesis gene products has hindered the whole view of biosynthesis pathways. In addition, plant biosynthesis is highly influenced by the interactions between plants and other organisms (symbiosis and infection). Thus, the regulatory mechanisms of plant biosynthesis are quite complex and multi-layered, which have been well beyond our current understanding. Therefore, the comprehensive understanding of plant biosynthesis, in particular, biosynthesis in useful plants is needed.

The possibility of brand-new molecule production

Noting that the plant's complex biosynthesis pathways are the result of "genomic jumbling" accumulated during their long evolutional history, we propose that artificial genomic jumbling may extend the variety of plant-made biochemicals. Synthesis of novel biochemical forms by the use of such a technology would open new opportunities for the innovative utilization of plant bioproduction.

Research targets

Here we propose the following three research goals that accelerate the efficiency and efficacy of plant biosynthesis.

• (1) Analysis: To elucidate the plant natural biosynthesis.
  • To uncover the structure of new plant-derived substances, including new plant hormones.
  • To uncover the unknown plant biosynthesis pathways.
  • To uncover the regulatory mechanisms that control plant biosynthesis.
  • To uncover the mechanisms that underlie plants' genomic flexibility.
• (2) Technology development: For more rapid analyses and the efficient manipulation of plant biosynthesis pathways.
  • To uplift technologies to identify and quantify plant-made chemicals.
  • To establish versatile gene manipulation technologies, which can be applied to various plant species.
  • To harness the power of chemical biology to stimulate the plant biosynthesis.
• (3) Creation: beyond the natural biosynthesis.
  • To design unconventional biosynthesis pathways and to create new biochemicals.

A comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms that underlie plant biosynthesis in vivo and in the context of ecosystems where they are indispensable for facilitation of plant bioproduction is a strategic economic goal. To enable the efficient adaptation and application of these outcomes, key technologies have to be expanded. Discovery of unknown plant synthesis pathways is expected to be newly uncovered from crops, medicinal plants, and other plant species, as well as from model plants. Novel molecular structures, biological pathways, and mechanisms that control the biosynthesis of such newly found plant molecules will be elucidated. In addition to synthetic organic chemistry, a strength of our country, recent advantages in analytical technologies, comparative genomics, and bioinformatics is expected to be developed in parallel in the research goals. Such newly unearthed plant molecules would serve as foundations to create innovative plant-derived new molecules; manipulation of molecular structure could influence on plant biosynthesis and vice versa.

To this aim, other than conventional plant science related techniques, it is strongly encouraged to employ various research tools such as recently advanced analytical technologies, comparative genomics which is empowered by bioinformatics, and synthetic organic chemistry.