Alain Goossens
Secondary Metabolites 
VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, UGent

PhD: Univ. of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium, '98 Postdoc: Inst. Biologia Molecular & Celular Plantas, Valencia, Spain, '98–'00 Principal Investigator VIB since 2002

e-mail phone +32 9 331 38 51 ADDRESS

Current team members
Group leader: Alain Goossens
Postdoctoral scientist: Gino Baart
Ph.D. Students: Amparo Cuellar Pérez, Azra Gholami, Jacob Pollier, Jan Geerinck, Michele Fabris, Michiel Matthijs, Nathan De Geyter, Sandra Soetaert, Tessa Moses
Visiting young scientist: Ines Carqueijeiro
Support personnel: Lander Ingelbrecht, Robin Vanden Bossche

Keywords
plant secondary metabolism - metabolic engineering - jasmonates - pharmaceuticals - transcript profiling

Science
Plants are capable of synthesizing an overwhelming variety of small organic molecules, called secondary metabolites, usually with very complex and unique structures and many of them of high interest to the pharmaceutical and chemical industry. For instance, plant derived pharmaceuticals represent a large market value; about 25% of today’s pharmaceuticals contain at least one active ingredient of plant origin. Even so, only a minute fraction of the enormous biosynthetic potential of plant cells is being exploited. Metabolic engineering of plant cells so far has added little to the problem, since insight into the molecular mechanisms driving plant secondary metabolism is still very limited. Genetic maps of biosynthetic pathways are still far from complete and the regulation of these pathways is hardly understood.

The goal of this group's research is to genetically characterise the molecular mechanisms driving secondary metabolite biosynthesis in plant cells. Identifying key elements involved in these processes will allow generating novel tools for metabolic engineering of plant cells. To this end, we have developed a functional genomics platform that allows (i) comprehensive investigations of plant metabolism and (ii) gene discovery on a genome-wide scale. Broadly, cDNA-AFLP based transcriptome analysis of medicinal plants is combined with metabolite profiling, followed by large-scale functional analysis of genes in automated transient expression assays or stable transgenic plant cells.

Importantly, this approach allows creating large libraries of novel genes potentially involved in the biosynthesis of plant natural products from any plant species or system, independent of prior sequence knowledge. Such extensive gene collections have been lacking till now but are indispensable to create a molecular toolbox for metabolic engineering of plant cells. Broadly, these collections harbour two categories of genes. The first, which can be designated as the category of potential master regulators, contains genes that are capable of enhancing the production of high-value molecules in plant cells. The second comprises genes that code for enzymes directly catalyzing plant natural product biosynthesis. This latter set may also be utilized to enhance the production of naturally existing molecules, but, most importantly, may enable establishing a combinatorial biochemistry platform, eventually leading to the creation of novel plant-made compounds with novel or superior biological activities.

As such, we aim to launch a new era of pharmacological bio-prospecting in the plant kingdom, offering the opportunity to browse into the entire metabolic repertoire of a plant and constituting a new and powerful genetic tool for the creation of cheaper or new plant compounds that may find applications in pharmaceutical, chemical or agricultural industries.

Pauwels L, Inzé D, Goossens A
Jasmonate-inducible gene: What does it mean?
TRENDS PLANT SCI 14, 87-91, 2009



Pauwels L, Morreel K, De Witte E, Lammertyn F, Van Montagu M, Boerjan W, Inzé D, Goossens A
Mapping methyl jasmonate-mediated transcriptional reprogramming of metabolism and cell cycle progression in cultured Arabidopsis cells
P NATL ACAD SCI USA 105, 1380-5, 2008



Maes L, Inzé D, Goossens A
Functional Specialization of the TRANSPARENT TESTA GLABRA1 Network Allows Differential Hormonal Control of Laminal and Marginal Trichome Initiation in Arabidopsis Rosette Leaves
PLANT PHYSIOL 148, 1453-64, 2008



Rischer H, Oresic M, Seppänen-Laakso T, Katajamaa M, Lammertyn F, Ardiles-Diaz W, Van Montagu M, Inzé D, Oksman-Caldentey K, Goossens A
Gene-to-metabolite networks for terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus cells
P NATL ACAD SCI USA 103, 5614-9, 2006



De Sutter V, Vanderhaeghen R, Tilleman S, Lammertyn F, Vanhoutte I, Karimi-Dehkordi M, Inzé D, Goossens A, Hilson P
Exploration of jasmonate signalling via automated and standardized transient expression assays in tobacco cells
PLANT J 44, 1065-1076, 2005

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