Tailoring plant metabolism for the production of novel polymers and platform chemicals

Genetic engineering of plants for the production of novel polymers and platform chemicals can help to alleviate the demands for limited resources and potentially provide a platform to produce valuable compounds in bulk quantities. However, the success of transgenic plants as bioreactors depends on competitive high-yield production capacities. Recent advances in enhancing the production of novel compounds in transgenic plants include multigene transformation and the direction of biosynthetic pathways to specific intracellular compartments. It now appears feasible to produce interesting proteins such as spider silk or collagen, novel carbohydrates, and biopolymers that could replace petroleum-based plastics using transgenic plants. Direct production of novel compounds in biomass crops with the aim to produce bioenergy as a coproduct provides a promising way to improve economics of transgenic plants as biofactories.