Samuel Nestor Meckoni (TU Braunschweig)
Samuel Nestor Meckoni's Master thesis was awarded with the Prize for the Best Plant Science Master Thesis, which was carried out at TU Braunschweig in the year 2024 with the title:
Establishing transformation methods in Utricularia gibba to investigate its potential as a biotechnological production system by examining trap specific secretion mechanisms
The unique suction traps of the carnivorous Utricularia plants could be put to biotechnological use by converting them into product accumulation sites.
The exact metabolic and transport processes of the fascinating traps of the carnivorous plants of the genus Utricularia are not yet known in detail, which is an obstacle to their possible biotechnological use. In order to investigate these transport processes in more detail, the plants were genetically modified. An Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer method was utilized.
My research focused on the potential of Utricularia gibba as a biotechnological production system by investigating the secretion of foreign proteins by its glandular cells using a known promoter. Bioinformatic tools were used to identify signal peptides that could facilitate protein accumulation in the plant's traps. The results showed promising candidates for further investigation, and the integration of these genes into the plant will provide valuable insights into their function and potential applications.
In addition, it was observed that the traps of the plant become reddish when experiencing nitrogen deficiency stress. This could help to unravel a novel promoter that could be used as a switch to regulate production.
Future research is planned for my doctoral studies. Thereby, the genetic modification methods will be optimised to conduct a proof-of-concept experiment regarding protein secretion and to extend the investigations to the secretion of small molecules.
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Samuel Nestor Meckoni conducted this work at the at the Institute of Plant Biology in the working group of Professor Dr. Boas Pucker.
