cyanogenic glucoside (Jørgensen et al. 2005). Zero-calorie natural extract of Stevia
rebaudiana offers steviol glycosides which are natural sweetener. Although it is very
important for today’s global food industry, its organoleptic qualities giving a bitter
aftertaste limit their widespread recognition in the food industry (Prakash et al.
2014), wherein the field of synthetic biology can step in. SynBio can also contribute
in reducing the allergenicity of allergens—Ara proteins which are negatively
influencing the health of global peanut consumers (Palladino and Breiteneder
2018). According to Gould (2020), SynBio technology can generate novel foods
like algae butter and hypoallergenic peanuts with superior taste and nutritional
properties. Gluten proteins in wheat grains are accountable for the exclusive viscoelastic properties of wheat-derived foods. However a-gliadin family of gluten,
triggers coeliac disease and nonceliac gluten sensitivity to humans (Sapone et al.
2011). In this regard, Sánchez-León et al. (2018) used CRISPR/Cas9 expertise to
design two sgRNAs targeting a conserved sequence next to the coding region for the
33-mer of a-gliadin genes. This precisely reduced a-gliadins levels in bread and
durum wheat kernels and hence reduced immune-reactivity for gluten-intolerant
consumers. These low-gluten, transgene-free wheat lines could also serve as source
material to introgress this trait into elite wheat varieties (Sánchez-León et al. 2018).
Combining synthetic genetic variability method with de novo domestication can
exploit the genetic diversity present in the wild plant (disease resistance and stress
tolerance) in order to quickly engineer superior crops. Zsögön et al. (2018) devised a
CRISPR–Cas9 genome engineering approach to amend six loci [general plant
growth habit (SELFPRUNING), fruit shape (OVATE), size (FASCIATED and
FRUIT WEIGHT), fruit number (MULTIFLORA), and nutritional quality (LYCOPENE BETA-CYCLASE)] and combined these traits with valuable traits of wild
Solanum pimpinellifolium. Compared with the wild parent, engineered
S. pimpinellifolium showed improvement in all the above-mentioned traits within a
single transformation experiment.
15.8 Valuable Plant Metabolites in Microorganism
Natural products and their derivatives are a collection of bioactive structurally
diverse molecules, such as therapeutic drugs (Paddon et al. 2013), flavourings
(Pretorius 2017), and oils (Pouvreau et al. 2018); and much more. There is a huge
metabolic capability with plants to synthesize these metabolites de novo from
renewable natural resources like water, CO 2 and sunlight. However, there are
limitations like the dependency of plants on arable land, water and season as well
as long generation times, large polyploidy genomes and other constraints, such as
abiotic and biotic stresses and food safety; leading to insufficient production which
subsequently raise their market values (Moses et al. 2017; Zimin et al. 2017).
Promising progress to combat this drift is the synthetic transplantation of multigene
pathways to fast-growing or easy-to-cultivate heterologous host, where plant-based
carbon feedstocks can be transformed with high competence to explicit plant
metabolites (Arendt et al. 2016; Li et al. 2018). Although algae, as an aquatic
468
P. Singla
rebaudiana offers steviol glycosides which are natural sweetener. Although it is very
important for today’s global food industry, its organoleptic qualities giving a bitter
aftertaste limit their widespread recognition in the food industry (Prakash et al.
2014), wherein the field of synthetic biology can step in. SynBio can also contribute
in reducing the allergenicity of allergens—Ara proteins which are negatively
influencing the health of global peanut consumers (Palladino and Breiteneder
2018). According to Gould (2020), SynBio technology can generate novel foods
like algae butter and hypoallergenic peanuts with superior taste and nutritional
properties. Gluten proteins in wheat grains are accountable for the exclusive viscoelastic properties of wheat-derived foods. However a-gliadin family of gluten,
triggers coeliac disease and nonceliac gluten sensitivity to humans (Sapone et al.
2011). In this regard, Sánchez-León et al. (2018) used CRISPR/Cas9 expertise to
design two sgRNAs targeting a conserved sequence next to the coding region for the
33-mer of a-gliadin genes. This precisely reduced a-gliadins levels in bread and
durum wheat kernels and hence reduced immune-reactivity for gluten-intolerant
consumers. These low-gluten, transgene-free wheat lines could also serve as source
material to introgress this trait into elite wheat varieties (Sánchez-León et al. 2018).
Combining synthetic genetic variability method with de novo domestication can
exploit the genetic diversity present in the wild plant (disease resistance and stress
tolerance) in order to quickly engineer superior crops. Zsögön et al. (2018) devised a
CRISPR–Cas9 genome engineering approach to amend six loci [general plant
growth habit (SELFPRUNING), fruit shape (OVATE), size (FASCIATED and
FRUIT WEIGHT), fruit number (MULTIFLORA), and nutritional quality (LYCOPENE BETA-CYCLASE)] and combined these traits with valuable traits of wild
Solanum pimpinellifolium. Compared with the wild parent, engineered
S. pimpinellifolium showed improvement in all the above-mentioned traits within a
single transformation experiment.
15.8 Valuable Plant Metabolites in Microorganism
Natural products and their derivatives are a collection of bioactive structurally
diverse molecules, such as therapeutic drugs (Paddon et al. 2013), flavourings
(Pretorius 2017), and oils (Pouvreau et al. 2018); and much more. There is a huge
metabolic capability with plants to synthesize these metabolites de novo from
renewable natural resources like water, CO 2 and sunlight. However, there are
limitations like the dependency of plants on arable land, water and season as well
as long generation times, large polyploidy genomes and other constraints, such as
abiotic and biotic stresses and food safety; leading to insufficient production which
subsequently raise their market values (Moses et al. 2017; Zimin et al. 2017).
Promising progress to combat this drift is the synthetic transplantation of multigene
pathways to fast-growing or easy-to-cultivate heterologous host, where plant-based
carbon feedstocks can be transformed with high competence to explicit plant
metabolites (Arendt et al. 2016; Li et al. 2018). Although algae, as an aquatic
468
P. Singla