Wolffia, a minimalist plant and synthetic biology chassis. (May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lam, Eric; Michael, Todd P.
• Is Part Of: Trends in plant science. Volume 27:Number 5(2022)
• Page Start: 430
• Page End: 439
• Publication Date: 2022-05
• Subjects: duckweed -- synthetic biology -- minimalist plant -- reduced morphology -- diurnal regulation; Botany -- Periodicals; Botanique -- Périodiques; Botany; Periodicals; 580.5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2021.11.014
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1360-1385

Abstract

Abstract : A highly simplified species for genome engineering would facilitate rational design of a synthetic plant. A candidate species is the aquatic, non-grass monocot wolffia ( Wolffia australiana) in the Lemnaceae family. Commonly known as watermeal, wolffia is a rootless ball of several thousand cells the size of a pinhead and the fastest growing plant known on Earth. Its extreme morphological reduction is coupled to transposon-mediated streamlining of its transcriptome, which represents a core set of nonredundant protein coding genes. Despite its body plan and transcriptome being highly specialized for continuous growth, wolffia retains cell types relevant to higher plants. Systems level studies with this species could enable the creation of a defined biological chassis for synthetic plant construction. Highlights: Wolffia is the smallest of duckweeds, at 1 mm diameter, with reduced morphology, lacking roots as well as vasculature but retaining key anatomical features and core pathways found in other plants, making it a potential synthetic plant biology chassis. Wolffia australiana has a minimal gene set at about 15 000 that represents a nonredundant catalog of core plant proteins, which facilitates characterization of gene function and can provide opportunities to introduce new pathways. Wolffia doubles in less than a day due in part to relaxed time-of-day (TOD) gating of growth and, since it is an aquatic plant that is partially submerged, it enables more precise manipulation and speed for experiments. Wolffia has features that make it ideal for bottom-up and top-down plant genome engineering, which could usher in a detailed description of cellular function and facilitate synthetic plant construction.