The Nicotiana benthamiana plant has been used to make vaccines against COVID-19 and the flu, or in the production of antibodies against the Ebola virus, among other uses. Now, Spanish scientists from the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Plant Biology (IBMCP), a mixed center of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and the Polytechnic University of Valencia have worked together to sequence an improved version of the Nicotiana benthamiana genome, which It will contribute to the improvement of the production capacity of biopharmaceuticals in the future.
“We have generated a high-quality version of the Nicotiana benthamiana genome, which is roughly the same size and complexity as the human genome. This improved sequence has also been completed with a series of additional information resources, what we call a multi-omics platform, which includes transcriptomic, metabolomic and epigenetic data” explains Diego Orzaez Calatayud, CSIC researcher at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Plant Cellular (IBMCP).
Biopharmaceuticals, a therapeutic alternative to protect health
Creating these multi-omic resources that provide detailed and concrete biological information is necessary to understand and optimize the genes that control the quantity and quality of the biopharmaceuticals produced with this plant. “In this way, we can accelerate the use of Nicotiana benthamiana as a platform for the production of biomolecules, something that we hope will have a positive impact on the capacity to produce drugs on a scale in the future and, therefore, on making them accessible to the population,” says Aureliano. Bombarely, CSIC researcher at the IBMCP.
“The determination of the genome sequence of ‘Nicotiana benthamiana’ has the potential to improve biotechnological and agricultural research and the production of new therapeutic products”
Knowing in depth the model plant genome is essential to understand its potential and to be able to apply it in different fields. “Just as sequencing of the human genome has enabled great advances in medical science and diagnostics, high-precision sequencing of the Nicotiana benthamiana genome has the potential to similarly enhance research. biotechnological and agricultural research and the production of new therapeutic products”, highlights the CSIC researcher at the IBMCP Víctor García-Carpintero.
The research has been published in Nature plants and is part of the European Newcotiana project coordinated from the IBMCP, whose objective is to advance the use of plants as a biofactory through the use of new genetic improvement techniques. The demand for biopharmaceuticals and other biological compounds to care for health is increasing and, as Orzaez points out: “Plants are the organisms best adapted to sustainably and efficiently produce the compounds we need to respond to these challenges, since they only use the light as a source of energy and can be grown on a large scale using relatively simple agricultural technologies.
The plant most used as a biofactory for medicines is Nicotiana benthamiana, a species of Australian origin that is related to tobacco. Vaccines against COVID and the flu or antibodies against Ebola, among other drugs, have been produced with this plant. Furthermore, N. benthamiana rivals Arabidopsis for primacy in many fundamental research applications in plant biology.
Source: Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC)
