Crop Synthetic Biology to engineer carbon availability in crops
Research focus
Plants continuously adapt their metabolism to changing environmental and developmental conditions, which requires precise regulation of protein function through post-translational modification, protein turnover and repair. These processes determine which proteins are active, for how long, and under which cellular conditions.
Our research focuses on understanding and engineering the regulation and function of proteins in vivo and to provide new strategies for resource-use efficiency in crops. In our projects, we use synthetic biology, molecular biology, protein engineering, proteomics and bioinformatics tools. Synthetic biology is a new tool to redesign (or build new) biological systems. It follows the circular principle of “design – build – test – learn” to engineer a system towards desired functions and allows to learn and benefit from it. The diverse tool sets of SynBio include continuous directed evolution, a powerful approach to evolve enzyme functions in a short timeframe. We use yeast as a platform organism because the physiological conditions are close to plants and the short generation time allows fast directed evolution.
Currently, we work on the following topics
- Cutting respiration costs of plant proteins
- Engineering alternative carbon fixation
- Redesigning protein protection/repair mechanisms
- Protein modifications upon pathogen attack
- Expanding crop resistance by protein engineering
Open positions:
- Bachelor and Master students
Funding
Elite Network of Bavaria, Bavarian State Ministry for Science and Art
Publications
Högerl, A. J. I. , Gnanamani, S., & Bathe, U. (2026) Protein Turnover in Plants – Cost of Synthesis, Repair and Crop Engineering Opportunities.
Plant Physiol. 202(1): kiag481
de Oliveira Filho, E.R., Gayen, A.K., García-García, J.D., Bathe, U., & Van Gelder, K. (2026) Evolving thiazole synthases for expression in plants.
Methods Enzymol. 735: 3-42
Belt, K., Obe, D., Wilson, M.A., Millar, A.H. & Bathe, U. (2025) Harnessing mass spectrometry-based proteomics for continuous directed evolution.
Synth. Biol. 10 (1): ysaf017
Frey, M., Bathe, U., Meink, L., Balcke, G.U., Schmidt, J., Frolov, A., Soboleva, A., Hassanin, A., Davari, M.D., Frank, O., Schlagbauer, V., Dawid, C., & Tissier, A. (2024) Combinatorial biosynthesis in yeast leads to over 200 diterpenoids, Metabolic Engineering 82: 193-200
Bathe, U., Leong, B. J., Van Gelder, K., Barbier, G.G., Henry, C.S, Amthor, J.S., & Hanson, A.D. (2023) Respiratory energy demands and scope for demand expansion and destruction.
Plant Physiol. 3;191(4): 2093-2103
García-García, J.D., van Gelder, K., Joshi, J., Bathe, U. , Leong, B.J., Bruner, S.D., Liu, C.C., & Hanson, A,D. (2022) Using continuous directed evolution to improve enzymes for plant applications.
Plant Physiol. 188(2): 971-983
Bathe, U., Leong, B.J., McCarty, D.R., Henry, C.S., Abraham, P.E., Wilson, M.A., & Hanson, A.D. (2021) The Moderately (D)efficient Enzyme: Catalysis-Related Damage In Vivo and Its Repair.
Biochemistry 60(47): 3555-3565
Lab website