Fine-tuning tomato agronomic properties by computational genome redesign

PLoS Comput Biol. 2012;8(6):e1002528. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002528. Epub 2012 Jun 7.

Abstract

Considering cells as biofactories, we aimed to optimize its internal processes by using the same engineering principles that large industries are implementing nowadays: lean manufacturing. We have applied reverse engineering computational methods to transcriptomic, metabolomic and phenomic data obtained from a collection of tomato recombinant inbreed lines to formulate a kinetic and constraint-based model that efficiently describes the cellular metabolism from expression of a minimal core of genes. Based on predicted metabolic profiles, a close association with agronomic and organoleptic properties of the ripe fruit was revealed with high statistical confidence. Inspired in a synthetic biology approach, the model was used for exploring the landscape of all possible local transcriptional changes with the aim of engineering tomato fruits with fine-tuned biotechnological properties. The method was validated by the ability of the proposed genomes, engineered for modified desired agronomic traits, to recapitulate experimental correlations between associated metabolites.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture
  • Biotechnology
  • Computational Biology
  • Computer Simulation
  • Fruit / genetics
  • Fruit / growth & development
  • Fruit / metabolism
  • Gene Knockout Techniques
  • Genetic Engineering
  • Genome, Plant
  • Linear Models
  • Metabolome
  • Models, Genetic
  • Phenotype
  • Plants, Genetically Modified
  • Solanum lycopersicum / genetics*
  • Solanum lycopersicum / growth & development
  • Solanum lycopersicum / metabolism
  • Synthetic Biology
  • Transcriptome
  • Up-Regulation