Team:Valencia UPV/Achievements

Policy and Practices > Achievements

As it can bee observed surfing our wiki, at the end of this long road we have accomplished many positive results:

• A plant able to produce three insect sexual pheromones from moths to produce insects mating disruption, the Sexy Plant.: Results: Pheromone analysis
  • Obtained pheromones being among the most abundant plant organic volatile compounds. (Z)-11-hexadecen-1-ol is certainly the most abundant one.
  • Successful and functional assembly of each of the pheromone biosynthetic genes with the plant constitutive promoter P35S. Also multigenic assembly of all three transcription units in a single plasmid. Results: Constructs-Biosynthesis
  • Proof of our produced pheromones-insect interaction. Results: Electroantennography



• A broad understanding of plant metabolism, by adapting and exploitation of a genome-scale model of Arabidopsis thaliana primary metabolism able to help us theoretically optimize the pheromone production Modeling: Pheromone Production
  • Adapting the AraGEM genome-scale model to our pheromone production pathway by branching the flux of our precursor metabolite Palmitic acid (16:0).
  • Identifying the principal: i) cell compartments and scenarios of the plant metabolism, ii) flux bounds and constraints for each scenario, and iii) the interactions between chemical reactions and substrates related to our pheromone.
  • Exploring genetic conditions that could improve our pheromone production by Single gene Knock-out analysis.
  • Obtaining optimal condition for the coupled yield of pheromone and biomass production as a function of photons consumption.



• A plant potentially able to release the produced pheromones into the environment.
  • Successful cloning of a trichome-specific promoter (PCPS2) from the genome of N. tabacum and subsequent assembly with GFP as a reporter. Results: Constructs-Pheromone release
  • Proof of the specificity of this promoter by GFP fluorescence detection. Results: Trichome-specific expression
  • Assembly of each gene of the pheromones production pathway with PCPS2 promoter and multigenic assembly with all three transcription units in a single plasmid. Results: Constructs-Pheromone release



• A Simulation Environment for the pheromone diffusion and moth response behaviour to help us decide where and how much sexy plants we should put in the field. Modeling: Pheromone Diffusion and Moths Response
  • Implementing an approximation of the diffusion process by the heat diffusion equation and its numerical solution.
  • Incorporating an approximation of the moth response behavior including female pheromone release into the environment, and male pheromone concentration sensitivity (that allows the male to follow the trace of females).
  • Adding our sexy plants that produce and release pheromone triggering mating disruption.
  • Designing a simulation platform available to community that is useful for exploration of parameters and scenarios related with chemical ecology models.



• A genetic switch able to control gene expression ready to be implemented in the plant.
  • Cloning of the coding sequence from the CUP2 transcription factor from S cerevisiae and assembly with the CaMV constitutive promoter P35S. Results: Construct-Switch
  • Creation of the Cupper-responsive chimeric promoter and assembly with Firefly luciferase gene as a reporter, P19 as a gene silencing suppressor, and Renilla luciferase as control for Luciferase expression assay. Results: Construct-Switch
  • Multigenic assembly comprising the CUP2 transcriptional unit with the chimeric promoter and reporter gene assembly. Results: Construct-Switch



• A sterile and dark purple plant safe for living beings and the environment.Biosafety
  • Multigenic assembly of two biosafety devices, comprising the Barnase (male-sterility) with one chromoprotein in each device, AmilCP or AmilGFP (identity preservation). Results: Constructs-Biosafety
  • Purple plant to preserve its identity expressing SlANT1 and SlJAF13 transcription factors. Results: Biosafety




Diffusion and communication of the project with involved experts and stakeholders. Policy and Practices