GMO Plants Could Aid in the Fight against Malaria | GEN – Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (blog)

Lead author on the study Luis Matas-Hernndez, Ph.D., began to study the formation of trichomes in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana when he was a postdoctoral researcher at the CRAG group led by Dr. Pelaz. The knowledge gained in that endeavor caused Dr. Hernandez to hypothesize that the formation of trichomes could be manipulated in plants with industrial applications. For the past several years, his research has been aimed at obtaining Artemisia plants that produce copious amounts of artemisininwhich he focuses on as a principal investigator at Sequentia Biotech.

"One of the main goals of Sequentia Biotech is to produce artemisinin of the same quality, but at a lower cost, Dr. Hernandez noted. Our ambition is to reduce the price of the drug so that it can be accessible to everyone in the future. We want to use Artemisia as a natural, low-cost factory for antimalarials, and we are testing different strategies to do it."

Along with collaborators at the Linnaeus University in Sweden, the researchers were able to identify the gene AaMYB1 among the array of genes expressed in Artemisia trichomes. At CRAG, the researchers designed transgenic plants that overexpressed this gene and found that they accumulated larger doses of artemisinin than non-genetically modified plants.

Additionally, to confirm the role of the AaMYB1 gene in the formation of plant trichomes, the researchers searched for orthologs in the model plant A. thaliana and found the gene AtMYB61. When this gene was overexpressed in the model plant, it also produced a higher amount of trichomes on its leaves, demonstrating that these genes play a key role in the formation of trichomes in evolutionarily distant species.

In addition to its role in Artemisia, the identification of this gene can also be useful for other plants whose trichomes produce substances of interest, Dr. Pelaz concluded.

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GMO Plants Could Aid in the Fight against Malaria | GEN - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (blog)