Tobacco trichomes as a platform for terpenoid biosynthesis engineering

Abstract

Many plant species have evolved specialized organs dedicated to the production of a restricted number of secondary metabolites. These organs have secretory tissues which can lead to very significant accumulations of products, in the range of mg per g of fresh weight. These natural cell factories are therefore interesting targets for metabolic engineering. Plant glandular trichomes in particular have attracted interest because of the relative ease to isolate them and to analyse the compounds they produce because they are secreted onto the leaf surface. Depending on the species, trichomes can produce a variety of metabolites. Terpenoids however are particularly well represented and have been used by humans in a variety of industries, including as aroma, fragrance and pharmaceutical ingredients. Tobacco trichomes produce diterpenoids in large amounts and were therefore chosen as a model system for engineering the biosynthesis of this important class of compounds. We present here our strategy and first results, which bode well for the future of glandular trichomes as engineered natural cellular factories.