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Physcomitrella patens, a versatile synthetic biology chassis

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Abstract

Key message

During three decades the moss Physcomitrella patens has been developed to a superb green cell factory with the first commercial products on the market.

Abstract

In the past three decades the moss P. patens has been developed from an obscure bryophyte to a model organism in basic biology, biotechnology, and synthetic biology. Some of the key features of this system include a wide range of Omics technologies, precise genome-engineering via homologous recombination with yeast-like efficiency, a certified good-manufacturing-practice production in bioreactors, successful upscaling to 500 L wave reactors, excellent homogeneity of protein products, superb product stability from batch-to-batch, and a reliable procedure for cryopreservation of cell lines in a master cell bank. About a dozen human proteins are being produced in P. patens as potential biopharmaceuticals, some of them are not only similar to their animal-produced counterparts, but are real biobetters with superior performance. A moss-made pharmaceutical successfully passed phase 1 clinical trials, a fragrant moss, and a cosmetic moss-product is already on the market, highlighting the economic potential of this synthetic biology chassis. Here, we focus on the features of mosses as versatile cell factories for synthetic biology and their impact on metabolic engineering.

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Fig. 1

Image taken with permission from Reski et al. (2015)

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Acknowledgements

Work in our laboratories is funded by the Marie Curie Actions of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 (Grant agreement no. 765115 MossTech to H. T. S., H. B. and R. R.), the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal and State Governments (EXC 294 to R. R.) and The Danish Council for Independent Research (#4005-00158B to H. T. S. and H. B.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, 79104, Freiburg, Germany

    Ralf Reski

  2. BIOSS, Centre for Biological Signalling Studies, 79104, Freiburg, Germany

    Ralf Reski

  3. Mosspiration Biotech IVS, 2970, Hørsholm, Denmark

    Hansol Bae & Henrik Toft Simonsen

  4. Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs, Lyngby, Denmark

    Henrik Toft Simonsen

Authors
  1. Ralf Reski
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  2. Hansol Bae
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  3. Henrik Toft Simonsen
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Correspondence to Ralf Reski.

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Conflict of interest

R. R. is an inventor of the moss bioreactor and a founder of Greenovation Biotech GmbH. He currently serves as advisory board member of this company. H. T. S. is the co-founder and CEO of Mosspiration Biotech IVS along with H. B. who is the co-founder and CSO of this company. All authors are inventors of patents and patent applications related to the topics discussed here. The Chair of Plant Biotechnology at the University of Freiburg, headed by R. R., developed and hosts the resources http://www.cosmoss.org and http://wwww.moss-stock-center.org.

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Communicated by Neal Stewart.

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Reski, R., Bae, H. & Simonsen, H.T. Physcomitrella patens, a versatile synthetic biology chassis. Plant Cell Rep 37, 1409–1417 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-018-2293-6

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