BIOTECHNOLOGY OF PHARMACEUTICAL PLANTS

General Foundation

The aim is the students’ introduction to the rapidly increasing field of «Biotechnology of Pharmaceutical Plants». During the 7th semester course (Pharmaceutical Biotechnology), the students have obtained general knowledge, the basic principles, technologies, and applications of molecular biotechnology. At the present course, students will have the ability to learn about the importance of secondary metabolism in the production of plant substances with pharmaceutical action, the biosynthetic pathways that lead to the biosynthesis of these substances, the modern experimental approaches of molecular biotechnology that lead to gene isolation, cloning and genetic modification. Finally, the lectures will cover the latest findings of molecular biotechnology in producing plant substances with pharmaceutical action, using the plants as factories that produce pharmaceutical substances and food.

Primary metabolites Secondary metabolites Regulation of biosynthesis and metabolism of natural products Regulation mechanism of biosynthesis (stable expression, induced expression) at gene level, protein level, substance level In relation to function Developmentally regulated or Induced by external or internal stimuli e.g. salicylic or jasmonic acid Regulation at enzyme level (feed-back, allosteric interaction, availability of co-factor, phosphorylation) Regulation at the level of Compartmentalisation (transport by diffusion or active transport) Biosynthesis of natural products Biosynthesis and oxidation of ascorbic acid Biosynthesis of terpenes Biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids Biosynthesis of alkaloids Approach and methodology of increase of the production of active substances of certain drugs Metabolic engineering Strategies of metabolic engineering in plants Metabolic engineering of secondary metabolites biosynthetic pathways Differential modulation of multigene family Bifurcation and connection of different pathways Catabolism of desirable components Compartmentalization of plant cell-membrane transporters Transport of components differs in various plant systems Potentials and challenges in metabolic engineering of transport proteins Existence of more than one limiting steps in biosynthesis rate (Rate-Limiting Steps) Toxicity, reduced resistance in infective factors-plant viability Factors-viability of plant Feedback inhibitions Potentials in the field of metabolic engineering of plants Multipoint Metabolic Engineering Regulatory genes-transcription factors Cooperation of metabolic engineering with combinatorial biochemistry Down-regulation of genes Functional genomics Development of technology and bioinformatics Metabolic engineering in new metabolic pathways and combinatorial biosynthesis Functional genomics or genomic analysis Applications of functional genomics in pharmaceutical and aromatic plants Tissue culture of plants (totipotency, somaclonal variability, re-birth) In vitro rebirth of pharmaceutical plants Genetically engineered pharmaceutical plants Genetic engineering Protocols Production of homozygote plants and control-selection of genetic transformation Applications of genetic engineering in pharmaceutical and aromatic plants Production of secondary metabolites and biopharmaceutical substances Production of hairy roots Applications for the production of biopharmaceutical substances Molecular farming, molecular medical farming (vaccines and edible vaccines, antibodies, proteins etc.) Bioethics and genetically transformed plants and food

Molecular Biotechnology of Plants, Transgenic organisms, Biosynthesis of secondary metabolites

10-09-2013