An Optimized Version of the Small Synthetic Genome (Mini-Synplastome) for Plastid Metabolic Engineering in (Potato).

Plastids represent promising targets in plant genetic engineering for many biotech applications, ranging from their use as bioreactors for the overproduction of valuable molecules to the installation of transgenes for improving plant traits. For over 30 years, routine methods of plastid transformation have relied on homologous recombination integrating vectors. However, nonintegrating episomal plasmids have recently received more attention as an innovative tool for the plastid genetic engineering of plant cells.

Next-generation marker-free transplastomic plants: engineering the chloroplast genome without integration of marker genes in Solanum tuberosum (potato).

This study describes an optimized plastid genetic engineering platform to produce full marker-free transplastomic plants with transgene integrated at homoplasmy in one step in tissue culture. Plastid engineering is attractive for both biotechnology and crop improvement due to natural bio-confinement from maternal inheritance, the absence of transgene positional effects and silencing, the ability to express transgenes in operons, and unparalleled production of heterologous proteins. While plastid engineering has had numerous successes in the production of high-value compounds, no transplastomic plants have been approved for use in agriculture.

spp. are facultative anaerobic bacteria under denitrifying conditions.

Respiration is a fundamental and complex process that bacteria use to produce energy. Despite aerobic respiration being the most common, some bacteria make use of a mode of respiration in the absence of oxygen, called anaerobic respiration, which can yield advantages in adaptation to various environmental conditions. Denitrification is part of this respiratory process ensuring higher respiratory flexibility under oxygen depletion.

Heterologous Expression of Increases Tuber Yield and Phenotypic Stability in Potato under Both Abiotic and Biotic Stresses.

Climate-smart and sustainable crops are needed for the future. Engineering crops for tolerance of both abiotic and biotic stress is one approach. The accumulation of trehalose, controlled through () or and () or genes in microbes, is known to provide protection for many microbial and fungal species against abiotic stress.

Engineered gamma radiation phytosensors for environmental monitoring.

Nuclear energy, already a practical solution for supplying energy on a scale similar to fossil fuels, will likely increase its footprint over the next several decades to meet current climate goals. Gamma radiation is produced during fission in existing nuclear reactors and thus the need to detect leakage from nuclear plants, and effects of such leakage on ecosystems will likely also increase. At present, gamma radiation is detected using mechanical sensors that have several drawbacks, including: (i) limited availability; (ii) reliance on power supply; and (iii) requirement of human presence in dangerous areas.