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SUMMARY:Molecular breeding of medicinal crops and discoveries along the wa
 y - Ian Graham (University of York)
DTSTART:20131121T130000Z
DTEND:20131121T140000Z
UID:TALK47374@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ian Henderson
DESCRIPTION:From Sweet Wormwood to Opium Poppies\n\nThe Chinese medicinal 
 plant Artemisia annua (Sweet Wormwood or Qing Hao) is the primary source o
 f the leading anti-malarial drug artemisinin. This sesquiterpene lactone i
 s produced in glandular secretory trichomes on the surface of leaves. With
  the aid of funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation we published 
 the first genetic map of A. annua in 2010\, along with quantitative trait 
 loci accounting for much of the variation in key traits controlling artemi
 sinin yield (Graham et al.\, 2010\, Science\, 327:328-31). This work laid 
 the foundation for the selection of elite parents for F1 hybrid production
 . In 2011 the University of York signed an agreement with East West Seeds\
 , an international seed production company\, to produce and market improve
 d hybrid seeds\, the performance of which has been proven in extensive fie
 ld trials carried out in East Africa\, Madagascar\, India and China. Enoug
 h CNAP hybrid seed has been sold in Africa in 2013 to produce over 100 mil
 lion artemisinin combination therapy treatments\; enabling them to produce
  the remedy for their own public health problem. In parallel with the prod
 uction of improved hybrids we have used TILLING to identify mutations in k
 ey genes regulating other major metabolic pathways that operate in A. annu
 a glandular trichomes. Two mutants will be described: one that is disrupte
 d in the production of casticin – a polymethoxylated flavonoid that can 
 accumulate in wild type A. annua leaves to levels equivalent to artemisini
 n\; the second mutant is disrupted in the production of camphor\, a monote
 rpene that also accumulates to levels equivalent to artemisinin in wild ty
 pe trichomes.\n\nOpium poppy (Papaver somniferum) remains one of the most 
 important medicinal plants in the world due to the presence of a diverse s
 et of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids with potent pharmaceutical activities\,
  the best known of which are the morphinan subclass including codeine and 
 morphine. Over the last five years we have been funded by GlaxoSmithKline 
 Australia to develop new poppy varieties with improved levels of target al
 kaloids including noscapine\, which has been used as a human cough suppres
 sant for decades and more recently has been shown to have anticancer prope
 rties. While the biosynthesis of the morphinan alkaloids has been characte
 rised in detail over the last 20 years\, very little was known about the b
 iosynthesis of noscapine. A major breakthrough came recently with our disc
 overy of a cluster of ten genes encoding five different enzyme classes res
 ponsible for the production of noscapine (Winzer et al.\, 2012\, Science\,
  336:1704-8). Functional characterisation of a number of these genes by vi
 rus induced gene silencing allowed a novel biosynthetic pathway to be prop
 osed and molecular markers are now allowing the gene cluster to be selecte
 d for as a single locus in a breeding programme that is delivering new pop
 py varieties.
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theatre
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