Toward mitochondrial plant cell factories
Thursday, January 15, 2015 - 09:20
in Biology & Nature
In work published in Scientific Reports, a group of researchers led by Jo-Ann Chuah and Keiji Numata of the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science have devised a new strategy for selectively delivering genes into the mitochondria of plant cells by using a simple combination of cell-penetrating and mitochondria-targeting peptides. This work, done in cooperation with Keio University and Utsunomiya University, lays the groundwork for the rational design of peptide-based gene carriers with the potential to create a new field of "mitochondria engineering," which could enable the creation of mitochondria-based plant cell factories for the creation of bio-polymers and bio-fuels.