Monday, August 2, 2010
Pacific Concourse (Hyatt Regency San Francisco)
Tocopherols, collectively known as vitamin E, are lipophilic antioxidants, essential dietary components for mammals and exclusively synthesized by photosynthetic organisms such as plants and algae. Of the four forms (α, β, Υ and δ), α-tocopherol is the major vitamin E form present in green plant tissues, and has the highest vitamin E activity. As chemical synthesis of α-tocopherol gives rise to a racemic mixture, there is growing interest in extracting this molecule from natural sources. We applied a comprehensive comparative genomics approach, presented here, to gain a detailed understanding of the genomes, gene, splice variants and biochemical pathways involved in tocopherol biosynthesis, and their occurrence and regulation in different organisms including plants (tissue cultures) and algae. The Genedata Phylosopher® biotech system facilitates the automatic integration and maintenance of these data, including sequences linked to traits of interest. Furthermore, the system enables the identification of genome-wide mutations, prediction of their biological impact, and correlation with phenotypes. The Phylosopher system is particularly valuable in strain optimization strategies which couple classical screening approaches with next-generation sequencing.
The system has general applicability in knowledge-driven metabolic engineering of plants for sustainable production, the design of production organisms for biofuels and other specialty substances in the cosmetics, feed and food industries.