基因工程与植物的遗传改良

概述了植物基因工程的发展历史及其在植物遗传改良中与常规改良技术相比具有的明显优势,介绍了经基因工程技术改良的转基因植物研究与应用状况,分析了植物基因工程在植物遗传改良中的潜在风险．阐述了利用植物基因工程进行遗传改良与常规遗传改良的关系,并对今后基因工程在植物遗传改良中的应用前景进行了展望。     

Metabolic engineering of flavonoids in plants and microorganisms

Over 9,000 flavonoid compounds have been found in various plants, comprising one of the largest families of natural products. Flavonoids are an essential factor in plant interactions with the environment, often serving as the first line of defense against UV irradiation and pathogen attacks. Flavonoids are also major nutritional compounds in foods and beverages, with demonstrated health benefits. Some flavonoids are potent antioxidants, and specific flavonoid compounds are beneficial in many physiological and pharmacological processes. Therefore, engineering of flavonoid biosynthesis in plants or in microorganisms has significant scientific and economical importance. Construction of biosynthetic pathways in heterologous systems offers promising results for large-scale flavonoid production by fermentation or bioconversion. Genomics and metabolomics now offer unprecedented tools for detailed understanding of the engineered transgenic organism and for developing novel technologies to further increase flavonoid production yields. We summarize some of the recent metabolic engineering strategies in plants and microorganisms, with a focus on applications of metabolic flux analysis. We are confident that these engineering approaches will lead to successful industrial flavonoid production in the near future.     

Factors affecting the genetic engineering of plants by microprojectile bombardment

Since its development in the mid-1980s, microprojectile bombardment has been widely employed as a method for direct gene transfer into a wide range of plants, including the previously difficult-to-transform monocotyledonous species. Although the numerous instruments available for microprojectile-mediated gene delivery and their applications have been widely discussed, less attention has been paid to the critical factors which affect the efficiency of this method of gene delivery. In this review we do not wish to describe the array of devices used for microprojectile delivery or their uses which have already been definitively described, but instead wish to report on research developments investigating the factors which affect microprojectile-mediated transformation of plants.     

A critical review on the improvement of photosynthetic carbon assimilation in C3 plants using genetic engineering

Global warming is one of the most serious challenges facing us today. It may be linked to the increase in atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs), leading to a rise in sea level, notable shifts in ecosystems, and in the frequency and intensity of wild fires. There is a strong interest in stabilizing the atmospheric concentration of CO2 and other GHGs by decreasing carbon emission and/or increasing carbon sequestration. Biotic sequestration is an important and effective strategy to mitigate the effects of rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations by increasing carbon sequestration and storage capacity of ecosystems using plant photosynthesis and by decreasing carbon emission using biofuel rather than fossil fuel. Improvement of photosynthetic carbon assimilation, using transgenic engineering, potentially provides a set of available and effective tools for enhancing plant carbon sequestration. In this review, firstly different biological methods of CO2 assimilation in C3, C4 and CAM plants are introduced and three types of C4 pathways which have high photosynthetic performance and have evolved as CO2 pumps are briefly summarized. Then (i) the improvement of photosynthetic carbon assimilation of C3 plants by transgenic engineering using non-C4 genes, and (ii) the overexpression of individual or multiple C4 cycle photosynthetic genes (PEPC, PPDK, PCK, NADP-ME and NADP-MDH) in transgenic C3 plants (e.g. tobacco, potato, rice and Arabidopsis) are highlighted. Some transgenic C3 plants (e.g. tobacco, rice and Arabidopsis) overexpressing the FBP/SBPase, ictB and cytochrome c6 genes showed positive effects on photosynthetic efficiency and growth characteristics. However, over the last 28 years, efforts to overexpress individual, double or multiple C4 enzymes in C3 plants like tobacco, potato, rice, and Arabidopsis have produced mixed results that do not confirm or eliminate the possibility of improving photosynthesis of C3 plants by this approach. Finally, a prospect is provided on the challenges of enhancing carbon assimilation of C3 plants using transgenic engineering in the face of global warming, and the trends of the most promising approaches to improving the photosynthetic performance of C3 plants.     

Heritable variability induced by the in vitro culture and genetic improvement of cultivated plants

Abstract

Genetic variability is found among plants derived from in vitro cultures of somatic cells. A number of different factors, such as the pre-existing genetic variation developed in vivo during tissue differentiation, the variation induced during the in vitro culture and also the selection for specific genotypes during plant regeneration, are considered as possible causes of the phenomenon.

The nature of the genetic changes induced in somaclones (variation in chromosome number, gross and cryptic chromosomal rearrangements, transposition of genetic elements, gene amplification and somatic gene rearrangements) is also discussed.     

Plant genetic engineering for crop improvement

Plant genetic engineering has long since left its experimental stage: transgenic plants with resistance to viruses, bacteria, fungi, various pests and abiotic stresses have already been released in their hundreds. Transgenic plants can produce better fruits and food of higher quality than wild-types, and can be used as bioreactors for the synthesis of pharmaceutically important compounds. This review portrays some of the achievements in this field of plant molecular biology.The authors are with Plant Molecular Biology, Biozentrum, Frankfurt University, Marie-Curie-Strasse 9, D-60439 Frankfurt, Germany     

Site-specific recombination for genetic engineering in plants

Site-specific recombination has been developed into a genetic engineering tool for higher eukaryotes. The manipulation of newly introduced DNA is now possible in the course of genetic transformation procedures, thus making the process more predictable and reliable. Also, a wide variety of chromosomal rearrangements using site-specific recombination have been documented both in metazoan and plant species. Applying such methods to plants opens new avenues for large-scale chromosome engineering in the future.     

Escherichia coli K5 heparosan fermentation and improvement by genetic engineering

N-acetyl heparosan is the precursor for the biosynthesis of the important anticoagulant drug heparin. The E. coli K5 capsular heparosan polysaccharide provides a promising precursor for in vitro chemoenzymatic production of bioengineered heparin. This article explores the improvements of heparosan production for bioengineered heparin by fermentation process engineering and genetic engineering.     

Strain improvement for fermentation and biocatalysis processes by genetic engineering technology

Twenty years ago, the first complete gene cluster encoding the actinorhodin biosynthetic pathway was cloned and characterized. Subsequently, the gene clusters encoding the biosynthetic pathways for many antibiotics were isolated. In the past decade, breakthroughs in technology brought that generation of rationally designed or new hybrid metabolites to fruition. Now, the development of high-throughput DNA sequencing and DNA microarray techniques enables researchers to identify the regulatory mechanisms for the overproduction of secondary metabolites and to monitor gene expression during the fermentation cycle, accelerating the rational application of metabolic pathway engineering. How are the new tools of biotechnology currently being applied to improve the production of secondary metabolites? Where will this progress lead us tomorrow? The use of whole cells or partially purified enzymes as catalysts has been increased significantly for chemical synthesis in pharmaceutical and fine-chemical industries. The development of PCR technologies for protein engineering and DNA shuffling is leading to the generation of new enzymes with increased stability to a wide range of pHs, temperatures and solvents and with increased substrate specificity, reaction rate and enantioselectivity. Where will this emerging technology lead us in the twenty-first century?     

顶头孢霉遗传育种研究进展

顶头孢霉是一类重要的工业微生物,其发酵产物头孢菌素C可用来生产7-ACA,而后者是临床常用抗感染药物头孢类抗生素的重要中间体。头孢菌素C的发酵水平决定了其下游头孢类抗生素的生产水平、产品质量及价格,因此对顶头孢霉的菌种选育工作显得尤其迫切。随着分子生物学的发展,基因工程分子改造在遗传育种领域发挥着越来越重要的作用。文章综述了对头孢菌素C的生物合成以及调控的研究进展,并将国内外对顶头孢霉进行遗传育种的结果进行了归纳总结,提出了可以从提高头孢菌素C发酵水平、延伸代谢途径等不同方面对头孢菌素C生物合成及调控基因,包括外源基因的导入和表达进行改造优化,并对进一步的研究目标进行了展望,认为可以结合比较蛋白质组和基因组改组使遗传育种所获得的工程菌尽快进入产业化。     

Plant protein improvement by genetic engineering: use of synthetic genes

Methods now exist to construct genes coding for synthetic proteins enriched in essential amino acid content. The production of these synthetic proteins in potato tubers can improve the nutritive value of the potato and increase its importance as a basic food crop.     

观赏植物组织培养与基因工程研究进展(综述)

本文综述近年来观赏植物组织培养和基因工程的研究进展。     

Achievements and problems of genetic engineering of Crucifereceae plants

Plants of the Brassicaceae family are important oil, vegetable and feed crops. The review is devoted to the latest achievements in genetic engineering of plants from this family. Results concerning development of effective methods both of Agrobacteium-mediated transformation and of direct gene uptake are considered. Particularly, possibilities of plant genetic modification with the aim to improve agronomically and commercially important traits are stressed. Problems of biologically safe introduction of transgenic plants into agricultural production are discussed.     

Toward stable genetic engineering of human o-glycosylation in plants

Glycosylation is the most abundant and complex posttranslational modification to be considered for recombinant production of therapeutic proteins. Mucin-type (N-acetylgalactosamine [GalNAc]-type) O-glycosylation is found in eumetazoan cells but absent in plants and yeast, making these cell types an obvious choice for de novo engineering of this O-glycosylation pathway. We previously showed that transient implementation of O-glycosylation capacity in plants requires introduction of the synthesis of the donor substrate UDP-GalNAc and one or more polypeptide GalNAc-transferases for incorporating GalNAc residues into proteins. Here, we have stably engineered O-glycosylation capacity in two plant cell systems, soil-grown Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) Bright Yellow-2 suspension culture cells. Efficient GalNAc O-glycosylation of two stably coexpressed substrate O-glycoproteins was obtained, but a high degree of proline hydroxylation and hydroxyproline-linked arabinosides, on a mucin (MUC1)-derived substrate, was also observed. Addition of the prolyl 4-hydroxylase inhibitor 2,2-dipyridyl, however, effectively suppressed proline hydroxylation and arabinosylation of MUC1 in Bright Yellow-2 cells. In summary, stably engineered mammalian type O-glycosylation was established in transgenic plants, demonstrating that plants may serve as host cells for the production of recombinant O-glycoproteins. However, the present stable implementation further strengthens the notion that elimination of endogenous posttranslational modifications may be needed for the production of protein therapeutics.     

Evolving strategies for the genetic engineering of herbicide resistance in plants

Developments in plant genetic engineering technology will shortly permit the commercial introduction of transgenic crop varieties resistant to a number of non-selective herbicides. High levels of tolerance have been achieved both by overexpression of a target protein and by modification of that target to an insensitive form. However the results of preliminary trials suggest that in some instances the yield penalty for such genetic alterations will be prohibitive. An alternative strategy, based on the transfer and expression of a gene encoding a herbicide-detoxifying enzyme, appears to offer high resistance levels at low metabolic cost and is expected to assume increasing importance, although it may not prove suitable for all herbicides.     

Cell genetic engineering: Transmission genetics of plants

Achievements of cell and genetic engineering that led to formation of a new genetics chapter— transmission genetics—have been described. Results have been analyzed and new opportunities in the field of transgenomic somatic hybrids and cybrid obtaining, production of transgenic plants with agronomic pharmaceutical application, development of transplastomic plants, and accumulation of recombinant proteins by using the transient expression of foreign genes in plants have been shown.     

一碳气体利用微生物及其基因工程改造

一碳气体主要包括CO、CO_(2)和CH_(4)等,这些气体来源于陆地生物活动、工业废气以及气化合成气等,其中CO_(2)与CH_(4)是温室气体,对全球气候变化有着重要的影响。利用微生物进行一碳气体生物转化既可以解决废气排放的问题,又能生产燃料及多种化学品。近年来,运用CRISPR/Cas9等基因编辑技术对一碳气体利用微生物进行改造,是提高它们的产物得率、增加产物类型的重要途径。本文主要围绕甲烷营养菌、自养乙酸菌、一氧化碳营养菌等一碳气体利用微生物,综述了其生物学特性、好氧和厌氧代谢途径、代谢产物,以及常用的基因编辑技术(利用同源重组的基因中断技术、二类内含子ClosTron法、CRISPR/Cas基因编辑及以噬菌体重组酶介导的DNA大片段引入等)在它们中的应用,为后续相关研究提供参考。     

Production of red-flowered plants by genetic engineering of multiple flavonoid biosynthetic genes

Orange- to red-colored flowers are difficult to produce by conventional breeding techniques in some floricultural plants. This is due to the deficiency in the formation of pelargonidin, which confers orange to red colors, in their flowers. Previous researchers have reported that brick-red colored flowers can be produced by introducing a foreign dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR) with different substrate specificity in Petunia hybrida, which does not accumulate pelargonidin pigments naturally. However, because these experiments used dihydrokaempferol (DHK)-accumulated mutants as transformation hosts, this strategy cannot be applied directly to other floricultural plants. Thus in this study, we attempted to produce red-flowered plants by suppressing two endogenous genes and expressing one foreign gene using tobacco as a model plant. We used a chimeric RNAi construct for suppression of two genes (flavonol synthase [FLS] and flavonoid 3′-hydroxylase [F3′H]) and expression of the gerbera DFR gene in order to accumulate pelargonidin pigments in tobacco flowers. We successfully produced red-flowered tobacco plants containing high amounts of additional pelargonidin as confirmed by HPLC analysis. The flavonol content was reduced in the transgenic plants as expected, although complete inhibition was not achieved. Expression analysis also showed that reduction of the two-targeted genes and expression of the foreign gene occurred simultaneously. These results demonstrate that flower color modification can be achieved by multiple gene regulation without use of mutants if the vector constructs are designed resourcefully. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.