Plants as Bioreactors for the Production of Biopesticides

ACHIMÓN FERNANDA; ARECO VANESSA A. ; BRITO VANESSA D.; PESCHIUTTA, MARÍA LAURA; MERLO, CAROLINA; PIZZOLITTO ROMINA P.; JULIO A. ZYGADLO; ZUNINO, MARÍA PAULA; OMARINI ALEJANDRA B.

Plants as Bioreactors for Industrial Molecules

John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Año: 2023; p. 337 - 366

Plants are widely used as bioreactors for the production of essential oils (EOs) or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) utilized as pesticides in the agriculture sector. However, a major obstacle for the massive application of EOs is that they are synthesized in small quantities. In this context, metabolic engineering to improve the yields of EOs or VOCs such as the integration and expression of foreign genes in heterologous organisms through Agrobacterium -mediated transformation or induced mutations have been used. In the present chapter, we explored the use of plants as biofactories to produce EOs and VOCs with properties as insecticides, bactericides, and fungicides reported over the last five years. Furthermore, relevant information has been compiled on the different mechanisms of genetic manipulation applied to aromatic plants to increase the yield of EO and its pure components. Besides that, the bioconversion process of EOs and VOCs by microorganisms was also discussed with several examples from the bibliography. Finally, we will cover in vitro synthesis of desired compounds vs. their extraction from natural sources, by addressing the production of azadirachtin by Azadirachta indica.