Aromatic Plants Metabolic Engineering: A Review

Abstract

Secondary metabolites of aromatic plants are used in many health applications as drugs, pheromones, insecticides, fragrances, and antioxidants. Due to the huge commercial demand for these secondary metabolites, the need to overcome the insufficient productivity of aromatic plants has become a significant challenge. Plant breeding is a traditional, labor-intensive, and limited method to improve the ability of aromatic plants to produce secondary metabolites. Modern methods of biotechnology, including genetic engineering and genome editing, can be useful and cost-effective in improving aromatic plants, as they can increase the efficiency of obtaining plants with high productivity and the creation of resistant forms and breeding lines. This review illustrates the importance of developing methods for the modification of aromatic plants belonging to different families, with a predictable quality, resistance to adverse factors and pests, and intensive growth and high yields and productivity of valuable essential oils. Particular attention is paid to successful examples of the modification of aromatic plants, applied methods, and principal approaches

Chemical Diversity, Yield, and Quality of Aromatic Plants

“…The interesting problem of the metabolic engineering of MAPs was discussed by Shelepova et al [26], emphasizing that there is a need to overcome insufficient productivity through this route. Plant breeding is a traditional, labor-intensive, and limited method to improve the ability of aromatic plants to produce secondary metabolites.…”

Synthetic biology tools for production of insect pheromones in plants and filamentous fungi

“…Although work so far has focused on the use of model plants, the exploitation of more specialised species for biomanufacturing pheromones should also be explored. Regarding pheromone emission, enhanced volatilization could be achieved by employing aromatic plants, although biotechnological tools are much more limited in these species and entails additional difficulties for their transformation and in vitro growth (Shelepova et al, 2022). Regarding the lipidic nature of type I lepidopteran pheromones, the employment of oil crops like Camelina sativa for their production could result in higher yields, although it may generate concerns about competition with food crops (Löfstedt and Xia, 2021;Ortiz et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2022).…”