Bio-engineering of terpenoids – TerpFactory Consolidation

The TerpFactory LabCom results from an association of the company Plant Advanced Technologies (PAT, Nancy) and of the CNRS Institute of Plant Molecular Biology (IBMP) at University of Strasbourg (UPR2357). The Laboratory of Organic Synthetic Chemistry (LCOS) of CNRS and University of Strasbourg (UMR7177) is also involved.
The purpose of TerpFactory is to market new active molecules of plant origin at a competitive price for the cosmetics and pharmaceuticals sectors. It identifies new active molecules in a chemical subclass of compounds belonging to the family of terpenoids. It also develops new production methods of selected bioactive compounds. Its main target on this last point is the production of a natural compound with strong anti-inflammatory properties. This terpenoid compound is present in a very slow growing-plant of semi-desert African ecosystems. The overexploitation of this plant in its natural environment for the preparation of extracts threatens the survival of the species, resulting in a declining number of plants, challenging the source of this valuable anti-inflammatory compound. During the 2013-2017 period, TerpFactory implemented alternative solutions to produce this natural compound from new plant species using PAT dedicated technologies without massively exploiting the African plant species. The first part of the work also revealed the possibility to produce other active molecules from the same plant species.
Another goal of TerpFactory is to develop a biotechnological approach to produce the compounds of interest in controlled and reproducible conditions. This second objective is focused on one of the target plant species to characterize the different elements forming the metabolic pathway. Transcriptomic analyses of a target plant reduced to a small number the candidate enzymes for each biosynthetic step. The systematic functional analysis of these candidate enzymes so far permitted to elucidate more than half of the biosynthetic pathway leading to the production of the compound of interest in the source plant. The general objectives during the consolidation phase of TerpFactory are to:
- Validate the biological activities of new active molecules generated by the source plant species and optimize their method of production,
- Patent these new production tools and their applications,
- Characterize the genes responsible of the last steps of the biosynthesis of the anti-inflammatory compound of interest,
- Transiently reconstitute the metabolic pathway in an appropriate plant to validate the pathway.
On a long term, the objectives of the LabCom are to:
- Reconstitute the metabolic pathway in a microbial strain and to reprogram the host organism to biosynthesize the compound of interest,
- Implement fermentation technologies in bioreactor to produce the compound in controlled conditions,
- Optimize carbon flow in the host organism to improve industrial profitability,
- Patent this secured bioproduction method,
- Extend these new approaches for the production of other compounds of this class of active molecules.
This project provides the background to:
- Propose an alternative lower price industrial method for the production of the anti-inflammatory compounds with a demanding market,
- Provide a scientific and technological advance to the joint laboratory for the exploitation of this class of compounds,
- Produce of a whole family of active compounds using metabolic engineering approaches.