Carbohydrate engineering

Plants provide unrivalled opportunities for the provision of sugars and polysaccharides for biorefining, biofuels, animal feed, food and other industrial uses. The main goal of this project is to improve the quality and increase the yield of target polymers, and to alter their structure and hence properties for higher-value applications. The targets will be plant cell wall polymers and storage carbohydrates of plants and algae. The objectives will be achieved by building a registry of polysaccharide synthesis pathway genes and transcription factors that can be co-ordinately expressed using tested promoters from this and other workpackages, and genome engineering to generate novel carbohydrates with improved nutritional performance, providing an example of the application of synthetic biology for potential societal benefit.