Metabolic engineering of plant secondary metabolites: prospects and its technological challenges

Asem Mipeshwaree Devi; Khomdram Khedashwori Devi; Pukhrambam Premi Devi; Moirangthem Lakshmipriyari Devi; Sudripta Das

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1171154

Metabolic engineering of plant secondary metabolites: prospects and its technological challenges

Front Plant Sci. 2023 May 12:14:1171154. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1171154. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Asem Mipeshwaree Devi¹, Khomdram Khedashwori Devi¹, Pukhrambam Premi Devi¹, Moirangthem Lakshmipriyari Devi¹, Sudripta Das¹

Affiliation

¹ Plant Bioresources Division, Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development, Imphal, Manipur, India.

Abstract

Plants produce a wide range of secondary metabolites that play vital roles for their primary functions such as growth, defence, adaptations or reproduction. Some of the plant secondary metabolites are beneficial to mankind as nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. Metabolic pathways and their regulatory mechanism are crucial for targeting metabolite engineering. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9-mediated system has been widely applied in genome editing with high accuracy, efficiency, and multiplex targeting ability. Besides its vast application in genetic improvement, the technique also facilitates a comprehensive profiling approach to functional genomics related to gene discovery involved in various plant secondary metabolic pathways. Despite these wide applications, several challenges limit CRISPR/Cas system applicability in genome editing in plants. This review highlights updated applications of CRISPR/Cas system-mediated metabolic engineering of plants and its challenges.

Keywords: CRISPR/Cas9; flavonoids; metabolite engineering; prime editing guide RNA; secondary metabolism.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The authors are grateful for the financial support received from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India through the Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship (No. BT/RLF/Re-entry/62/2020), DST-SERB through SERB-POWER Research Grant (No. SPG/2021/002682), and the facilities and Core grant provided by the institute.