Metabolic Regulators for Plant Metabolite Availability Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need for compositions and methods to control the availability of metabolites in plant cells effectively, as current technologies lack efficient means to regulate metabolite uptake, assimilation, and distribution for optimal growth and stress tolerance.
Innovation Solution
Development of metabolic regulators, such as bacterial periplasmic binding proteins and their functional domains, which can bind to specific metabolites, allowing for controlled availability and improved metabolism, growth, and stress tolerance in plant cells by targeting specific metabolites and receptors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If metabolic regulators are introduced to control metabolite availability, then growth and yield are improved, but device complexity increases due to the need for specialized proteins and their integration into plant systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses bacterial periplasmic binding proteins (bPBPs) as intermediary molecules that specifically bind to metabolites and transport them across membranes. These bPBPs act as mediators between the external environment and plant cellular metabolism, enabling controlled metabolite availability without directly complex genetic modifications of plant metabolic pathways
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs a universal platform of bPBPs that can be adapted to bind various different metabolites by selecting appropriate bPBP variants. This multi-functional approach allows a single system architecture to control multiple different metabolic pathways, reducing overall system complexity while achieving broad metabolic regulation
2Manufacturing precision
If metabolic regulators target specific metabolites to improve crop quality, then manufacturing precision is improved, but difficulty of detecting and measuring increases due to the need to monitor specific metabolite levels and receptor activity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates reporters that produce detectable color changes or other optical signals in response to metabolite binding events. This allows visual or instrumental detection of metabolite levels and receptor activation states, transforming invisible metabolic changes into measurable signals without complex analytical equipment
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs feedback mechanisms where metabolite binding to bPBPs triggers detectable signals that indicate the current metabolic state. This feedback enables monitoring and adjustment of metabolite availability, allowing precise control while simplifying detection through built-in signaling pathways
3Reliability
If metabolic regulators are used to improve stress tolerance, then reliability is improved, but loss of energy increases due to the metabolic cost of producing and maintaining regulatory proteins
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes parameter changes in the form of inducing bPBP expression only under specific stress conditions or at specific developmental stages. By controlling when and where bPBPs are produced, the system maintains stress tolerance reliability while minimizing energy expenditure during normal growth conditions when stress response is not needed
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs dynamic regulation of bPBP expression levels and activity in response to environmental conditions. bPBP production is upregulated under stress conditions and downregulated under favorable conditions, allowing the plant to maintain reliability when needed while optimizing energy use by dynamically adjusting protein synthesis based on actual stress requirements
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The metabolic regulators enhance growth, yield, and crop quality, as well as improve tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses by altering metabolite availability and receptor activity, thereby optimizing resource utilization in plants.
Implementation Method 1
proteins that bind to specific metabolites and which can be used to control the availability of the metabolites in cells
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention provides metabolic regulators, which are proteins (such as fusion proteins, truncated proteins or full-length proteins) that bind to specific metabolites and which can be used to control the availability of the metabolites in cells, particularly plant cells. Proteins of the invention include one or more metabolic regulator proteins, can be truncated or full length, can further comprise a transmembrane domain or lipoylation site or can further comprise a transit peptide. Metabolic regulators of the invention can be soluble, e.g., cytosolic soluble, can be anchored to a biological membrane or can be organelle targeted or apoplastic targeted. The present invention also provides nucleic acid molecules encoding the metabolic regulators, methods of making the nucleic acid molecules, methods for making transformed organisms, including plants, photosynthetic organisms, microbes, invertebrates, and vertebrates, and methods for controlling availability of metabolites to a host cell.