Advanced plant cell biotechnology

The course begins with the lectures delivered by prof. Morandini (covering 3 ECTS points) which deal with two fundamental questions of metabolic engineering: 1) which factors control metabolic fluxes and intermediate concentrations and 2) which strategies /targets work better to modify yields or quality of a certain product, particularly those of industrial relevance. In order to tackle the questions, we shall make use of the tools provided by the Metabolic Control Analysis theory (elasticity, flux and concentration control coefficients). We shall discuss the interplay of supply and demand of metabolic intermediates, as well as the evidence in favour of the so-called 'parallel activation' to increase fluxes and the implications for manipulation strategies. Several case studies (and the relative successes and failures) of plant biotechnology will be discussed, among which the manipulation of starches, sugars, lipids, vitamins, natural pesticides, amino acids, and the inactivation of allergens and toxins.

The part taught by Paolo Pesaresi (covering 3 ECTS points) will first focus on the technical tools and theoretical basis of plant/algae biotechnological improvements for biofuel or food production. The different constructs for plant and algae genetic engineering together with the molecular basis of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation are discussed. The different elements of expression vectors, including constitutive and inducible promoters, enhancers, reporter genes, replication origin and marker genes, together with the strategies to create marker-free transgenes are described. Then the organisms and the strategies used to produce biofuels of the first, second and third generation are taken into consideration, with several examples of transgenic plants and algae with improved biofuel production capacity. Finally, we will examine plant traits modified by transgenesis or mutagenesis which are already on the market or which are likely to be commercially available in the near future: herbicide tolerance, pest resistance, improved nutritional content...etc.