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TPM - Tailoring Plant Metabolism - Work package 2 (WP2) - Designer Willows: high value phenolic glycosides for health and industry

Reference	BBS/E/C/000I0410
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Jane Ward
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Michael Beale, Dr Steve Hanley, Dr Gancho Slavov, Professor Frederica Theodoulou
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	5,339,800
Status	Current
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2017
End date	31/03/2023
Duration	59 months

Abstract

Willow contains high levels of natural phenolic glycosides which are probably best known for their role in the development of Aspirin but which also offer an alternative route to petroleum-derived chemicals. Application of chemical fingerprinting to Rothamsted's willow germplasm collections has revealed novel products with new pharmacologies, offering a timely and exciting opportunity to exploit willow chemistry and genes for the development of new medicines. In addition, further chemical diversity, present in abundance in some members of the willow family, offers green chemistry routes to BTX-derived phenolics for the chemical industry. Furthermore, low-input perennial cropping systems, such as short rotation coppice willow offer opportunities to achieve carbon-neutral production of materials, whilst also providing energy to drive industrial processes for the recovery of those materials, via the established technology of willow chip combustion for power generation. WP2 will combine natural product chemistry, genetics and genomics to design willow varieties producing novel high-value phenolic glycosides for multiple markets. Through a "plug and play" breeding approach, diverse substrates will be united with species-specific biosynthetic modules. Chemical space will be defined via metabolomics screening of the national willow collection. Metabolomic-transcriptomic time course experiments and mQTL analysis of mapping populations will elucidate the salicinoid biosynthetic pathway(s) and their regulation. Candidate genes will be characterised in microbial systems and/or RNAi and genome editing of the corresponding genes in the closely related poplar. Models of metabolite flux in willow will be derived from stable isotope labelling data and genetic factors influencing metabolism in hybridised genomes will be revealed through 'omics analysis of judicious crosses. Finally, product yields and extraction processes will be optimised for onward exploitation.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, Industrial Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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