2026/05/16 by Alessandro Occhialini, Xinlu Chen, Samantha A Miller +4 · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis #Plant Molecular Biology Research #Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms
paper · doi:10.64898/2026.05.15.725540
openalex publication_date 2026/05/16 · openalex created_date 2026/05/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
ABSTRACT Terpenes constitute the largest and most structurally diverse class of plant secondary metabolites, with critical roles in plant-environment interactions and broad industrial applications. Although nuclear genome engineering of terpene pathways has been extensively explored, chloroplast genome engineering remains largely undeveloped, with all reported studies restricted to the model plant Nicotiana . Here we report successful chloroplast genome engineering for diterpene production in the crop plant potato ( Solanum tuberosum ). First we identified the trnT/trnL plastomic locus as optimal for minimizing integration-associated growth penalties. Insertion of a bifunctional diterpene synthase gene into this plastomic site yielded transplastomic plants with successful diterpene production, but with reduced growth. The co-expression of a geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase gene to enhance precursor supply restored normal growth while elevating diterpene accumulation. Transplastomic plants were otherwise agronomically comparable to wild-type. This work expands chloroplast engineering as a viable strategy for terpene pathway engineering in crop improvement and high-value terpene production.