Project Leader Folke Sitbon

Expertise in regulation of secondary metabolites in plants, particularly the bioactive (antinutritional) glycoalkaloids in potato plants. Research also concerns the metabolism of sterols as well as wax esters.

Major achievements within C4F

Wax esters (WE) are naturally occurring lipids consisting of a fatty acid bound to a fatty alcohol with an ester bond. Plant-derived WE:s are of commercial interest as lubricants, but also for their potential as a starting material for bio-fuel production. Transgenic tobacco plants with up 8-fold increases of wax ester levels have been generated in previous work. New transgenic strategies to increase the wax ester levels even more are being evaluated. 

Related publications

Aslan, S., Hofvander, P., Dutta, P., Sitbon, F., Sun, C. 2015. Transient silencing of the ß-ketoacyl-ACP synthase II genes is feasible in Nicotiana benthaminiana for metabolic engineering of wax ester compositions. Scientific Reports, 5:11213 doi:10.1038/srep11213

Aslan, S., Hofvander, P., Dutta, P., Sun, C., Sitbon, F. 2015. Increased production of wax esters in transgenic tobacco plants by expression of a fatty acid reductase:wax synthase gene fusion. Transgenic Research 24(6):945-953