Metabolic engineering

The growth of plants is underpinned by, and in many cases limited by, the capacity of their metabolic systems. In green tissues, the process of photosynthesis transduces light energy into chemical energy to power the assimilation of carbon and nitrogen from the environment, the biosynthesis and maintenance of cellular components and export of sugars and amino acids to support the growth of the rest of plant. There is renewed interest in these metabolic processes due to concerns about the productivity of the global agricultural system in relation to an ever-increasing demand for food.

The research in my lab aims to develop a better understanding of the behaviour of the metabolic systems of plants in order to devise metabolic engineering strategies that will improve the productivity and quality of crop plants.

Cheung, C.Y.M., Ratcliffe, R.G. and Sweetlove, L.J. (2015) A method of accounting for enzyme costs in flux balance analysis reveals alternative pathways and metabolite stores in an illuminated Arabidopsis leaf. Plant Physiol 169: 1671–1682 Snowden, C.J, Thomas, B, Baxter, C.J, Smith, J.A.C, Sweetlove, L.J. (2015) A tonoplast Glu/Asp/GABA exchanger that affects tomato fruit amino acid composition Plant Journal. 81 (5): pp 651-660. doi:10.1111/tpj.12766. Gehl, B, Lee, C.P, Bota, P, Blatt, M.R, Sweetlove, L.J. (2014) An arabidopsis stomatin-like protein affects mitochondrial respiratory supercomplex organization Plant Physiology. 164 (3): pp 1389-1400. doi:10.1104/pp.113.230383. Gehl, B, Sweetlove, L.J. (2014) Mitochondrial Band-7 family proteins: Scaffolds for respiratory chain assembly? Frontiers in Plant Science. 5:. doi:10.3389/fpls.2014.00141. Masakapalli, S.K, Ritala, A, Dong, L, van, der Krol A.R, Oksman-Caldentey, K.-M, Ratcliffe, R.G, Sweetlove, L.J. (2014) Metabolic flux phenotype of tobacco hairy roots engineered for increased geraniol production Phytochemistry. doi:10.1016/j.phytochem.2013.12.007. Maurice, Cheung C.Y, Poolman, M.G, Fell, D.A, George, Ratcliffe R, Sweetlove, L.J. (2014) A diel flux balance model captures interactions between light and dark metabolism during day-night cycles in C3 and crassulacean acid metabolism leaves Plant Physiology. 165 (2): pp 917-929. doi:10.1104/pp.113.234468. O'Leary, B, Preston, G.M, Sweetlove, L.J. (2014) Increased β-cyanoalanine nitrilase activity improves cyanide tolerance and assimilation in arabidopsis Molecular Plant. 7 (1): pp 231-243. doi:10.1093/mp/sst110. Cheung, C.Y.M, Williams, T.C.R, Poolman, M.G, Fell, D.A, Ratcliffe, R.G, Sweetlove, L.J. (2013) A method for accounting for maintenance costs in flux balance analysis improves the prediction of plant cell metabolic phenotypes under stress conditions Plant Journal.. doi:10.1111/tpj.12252. Finkemeier, I, Konig, A.-C, Heard, W, Nunes-Nesi, A, Pham, P.A, Leister, D, Fernie, A.R, Sweetlove, L.J. (2013) Transcriptomic analysis of the role of carboxylic acids in metabolite signaling in arabidopsis leaves Plant Physiology. 162 (1): pp 239-253. doi:10.1104/pp.113.214114. Morgan, M.J, Osorio, S, Gehl, B, Baxter, C.J, Kruger, N.J, George, Ratcliffe R, Fernie, A.R, Sweetlove, L.J. (2013) Metabolic engineering of tomato fruit organic acid content guided by biochemical analysis of an introgression line Plant Physiology. 161 (1): pp 397-407. doi:10.1104/pp.112.209619. Sweetlove, L.J, Obata, T, Fernie, A.R. (2013) Systems analysis of metabolic phenotypes: what have we learnt? Trends in Plant Science.. doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2013.09.005. Sweetlove, L.J, Williams, T.C.R, Cheung, C.Y.M, Ratcliffe, R.G. (2013) Modelling metabolic CO2 evolution - a fresh perspective on respiration Plant, Cell and Environment. doi:10.1111/pce.12105.