Publications
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Biosynthesis of natural and halogenated plant monoterpene indole alkaloids in yeast 7 novembre 2023 - 26 août 2025 Published in Nature Chemical Biology, this collaborative work demonstrates a scalable de novo manufacturing platform for bioactive monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIAs, plant metabolites that possess various medicinal properties) in yeast and provides a foundation for further pathway refactoring toward microbial biosynthesis of both native and new-to-nature MIAs. -
Artificial intelligence for natural product drug discovery 27 septembre 2023 - 31 mars 2026 In this review article published in Nature Reviews drug discovery, Dr Mehdi Beniddir from the ANR project, MIACYC and collaborators describe current and future synergies between these developments to effectively identify drug candidates from the plethora of molecules produced by nature. -
Medicinal plants enter the single-cell multi-omics era 5 août 2023 - 26 août 2025 Our new spotlight published in Trends in Plant Science, on a report by Li et al on single-cell multi-omics approach used to elucidate the architecture and regulation of anticancer alkaloid biosynthesis in medicinal plants. -
Emerging mechanistic insights into the regulation of specialized metabolism in plants 23 décembre 2022 - 23 décembre 2025 Published in Nature Plants, this review focuses on translational, transcriptional, epigenetic and chromatin-based regulation and evolution of specialized metabolism genes, a new and forefront research filed. We extrapolate to medicinal plants that synthetize rare molecules and also discuss how this new knowledge could help in improving strategies to produce useful plant-derived pharmaceuticals. -
Boosting lignan-precursor synthesis in yeast cell factories through co-factor supply optimization 2 décembre 2022 - 2 décembre 2025 Through this commentary article, we highlight the outstanding work of the Zhou’s group which recently describes a distinct approach relying on the efficient recycling of enzyme co-factors in yeast to fulfill the synthesis of caffeic acid (CaA) and ferulic acid (FA), two precursors of podophyllotoxin. We discuss how the cofactor recycling approach will undoubtedly pave the way for future high titer production of valuable natural products in yeast. -
Genome Assembly of the Medicinal Plant Voacanga thouarsii 29 juillet 2022 - 29 juillet 2025 In our new article published in Genome Biology and Evolution, we provide the first annotated reference genome of a Voacanga species that, together with the previously published MIA-producing plant genomes, will help understand evolution and diversification of MIA in plants as well as identifying MIA biosynthetic genes to enrich the molecular MIA toolbox used for production of MIA in heterologous hosts. -
The Vinca minor genome highlights conserved evolutionary traits in monoterpene indole alkaloid synthesis 18 octobre 2022 - 18 octobre 2025 The Vinca minor genome finally assembled! Our new publication in G3!The Vinca minor plant synthesizes monoterpene indole alkaloids (MIAs), which are a class of specialized metabolites displaying a wide range of bioactive- and pharmacologically important properties. V. minor mainly accumulates vincamine, which is commercially used as a nootropic. Using a combination of Oxford Nanopore Technologies long read- and Illumina short-read sequencing, a 679,098 Mb V. minor genome was assembled into 296 scaffolds with an N50 scaffold length of 6 Mb, and encoding 29,624 genes. -
Computer-Assisted Design of Sustainable Syntheses of Pharmaceuticals and Agrochemicals from Industrial Wastes 26 août 2022 - 26 août 2025 Our new highlight in ChemSusChem! -
Identification of a second 16-hydroxytabersonine-O-methyltransferase suggests an evolutionary relationship between alkaloid and flavonoid metabolisms in Catharanthus roseus 26 août 2022 - 26 août 2025 We identified a second isoform of 16-hydroxytabersonine-O-methyltransferase enzyme that suggests an evolutionary relationship between alkaloid and flavonoid metabolisms in the Madagascar Periwinkle, a plant producing anti-cancer drugs - our new article in Protoplasma! -
A new path for terpenoid biosynthesis 29 juillet 2022 - 29 juillet 2025 Our spotlight on the work of Tao and colleagues that discovered a new pathway for triterpene biosynthesis in which bifunctional class I terpene synthases from fungi catalyze both the synthesis of HexPP and its cyclization via their prenyltransferase (PTd) and terpene cyclase (TCd) domains. -
Towards a Better Understanding of Toxin Biosynthesis in Seaweeds 21 juin 2022 - 21 juin 2025 We discuss in this Highlight article the importance of continuing to acquire new data on biosynthetic pathways in marine organisms for both diagnostic and metabolic-engineering purposes. -
More than a Catharanthus plant: A multicellular and pluri-organelle alkaloid-producing factory 24 mars 2022 - 24 mars 2025 Spotlight on our model plant, the Madagascar periwinkle : much more than a plant, an alkaloid factory! A review in Current Opinion Plant Biology. -
Social amoebae as a new chassis for drug production 21 février 2022 - 21 février 2024 Social amoebae as a new chassis for drug production : our new spotlight published in Trends in Biotechnology -
Chromosome-scale genomes throw light on plant drug biosynthesis 14 février 2022 - 30 septembre 2024 Recent chromosome-scale genomes from prominent medicinal plants have provided unprecedent insight into the architecture and evolution of some prominent metabolic pathways. A story related in our new paper published in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences! -
Marine drugs: Biology, pipelines, current and future prospects for production 13 décembre 2021 - 30 juin 2024 Do you know that marine organisms represent a huge reservoir of new pharmaceuticals? If you are interested, read our new research review paper published in Biotechnology advances! -
Voatriafricanines A and B, Trimeric Vobasine-Aspidosperma-Aspidosperma Alkaloids from Voacanga africana 27 septembre 2021 - 31 mars 2024 Dr Mehdi Beniddir from the ANR project, MIACYC and collaborators describe the use of a molecular networking-targeted strategy to identify the naturally occurring voatriafricanines A and B (1 and 2), representing the first examples of vobasine-aspidosperma-aspidosperma monoterpene trisindole alkaloids. -
Yeasts as Biopharmaceutical Production Platforms 30 septembre 2021 - 30 juin 2024 Curious about what kind of proteins or natural products are currently in yeast? Read our new opinion paper in Frontiers in Fungal Biology associating MYACIC project. -
Computational biotechnology guides elucidation of the biosynthesis of the plant anticancer drug camptothecin 3 mai 2021 Highlight on the recent Ophiorrhiza pumila genome assembly published in Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal. It allows us to elucidate the biosynthetic pathway leading to the production of the anticancer drug campthotecin. -
Advances in decomposing complex metabolite mixtures using substructure- and network-based computational metabolomics approaches 21 juin 2021 - 31 octobre 2021 Dr Mehdi Beniddir from the ANR project, MIACYC, just published a review about technical advances that will benefit all those metabolomics disciplines by transforming spectral data into knowledge that can answer biological questions. -
Plant to insect horizontal gene transfer: empowering whiteflies 3 mai 2021 A spotlight published in Trends in Genetic on a recent study which provides compelling evidences supporting the idea that a plant-derived gene allows for the detoxification of plant defense metabolites in a polyphagous arthropod herbivore. -
Peroxisome : a new hub for metabolic engineering in yeast 30 avril 2021 - 1 février 2023 First publication from MIACYC project in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology! The article shed light on the advantages of employing peroxisomes in the context of spatial reconfiguration and compile the recent breakthrough in yeast peroxisome engineering.
Biosynthesis of natural and halogenated plant monoterpene indole alkaloids in yeast
7 novembre 2023 - 26 août 2025
Published in Nature Chemical Biology, this collaborative work demonstrates a scalable de novo manufacturing platform for bioactive monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIAs, plant metabolites that possess various medicinal properties) in yeast and provides a foundation for further pathway refactoring toward microbial biosynthesis of both native and new-to-nature MIAs.
Artificial intelligence for natural product drug discovery
27 septembre 2023 - 31 mars 2026
In this review article published in Nature Reviews drug discovery, Dr Mehdi Beniddir from the ANR project, MIACYC and collaborators describe current and future synergies between these developments to effectively identify drug candidates from the plethora of molecules produced by nature.
Medicinal plants enter the single-cell multi-omics era
5 août 2023 - 26 août 2025
Our new spotlight published in Trends in Plant Science, on a report by Li et al on single-cell multi-omics approach used to elucidate the architecture and regulation of anticancer alkaloid biosynthesis in medicinal plants.
Emerging mechanistic insights into the regulation of specialized metabolism in plants
23 décembre 2022 - 23 décembre 2025
Published in Nature Plants, this review focuses on translational, transcriptional, epigenetic and chromatin-based regulation and evolution of specialized metabolism genes, a new and forefront research filed. We extrapolate to medicinal plants that synthetize rare molecules and also discuss how this new knowledge could help in improving strategies to produce useful plant-derived pharmaceuticals.
Boosting lignan-precursor synthesis in yeast cell factories through co-factor supply optimization
2 décembre 2022 - 2 décembre 2025
Through this commentary article, we highlight the outstanding work of the Zhou’s group which recently describes a distinct approach relying on the efficient recycling of enzyme co-factors in yeast to fulfill the synthesis of caffeic acid (CaA) and ferulic acid (FA), two precursors of podophyllotoxin. We discuss how the cofactor recycling approach will undoubtedly pave the way for future high titer production of valuable natural products in yeast.
Genome Assembly of the Medicinal Plant Voacanga thouarsii
29 juillet 2022 - 29 juillet 2025
In our new article published in Genome Biology and Evolution, we provide the first annotated reference genome of a Voacanga species that, together with the previously published MIA-producing plant genomes, will help understand evolution and diversification of MIA in plants as well as identifying MIA biosynthetic genes to enrich the molecular MIA toolbox used for production of MIA in heterologous hosts.
The Vinca minor genome highlights conserved evolutionary traits in monoterpene indole alkaloid synthesis
18 octobre 2022 - 18 octobre 2025
The Vinca minor genome finally assembled! Our new publication in G3!The Vinca minor plant synthesizes monoterpene indole alkaloids (MIAs), which are a class of specialized metabolites displaying a wide range of bioactive- and pharmacologically important properties. V. minor mainly accumulates vincamine, which is commercially used as a nootropic. Using a combination of Oxford Nanopore Technologies long read- and Illumina short-read sequencing, a 679,098 Mb V. minor genome was assembled into 296 scaffolds with an N50 scaffold length of 6 Mb, and encoding 29,624 genes.
Computer-Assisted Design of Sustainable Syntheses of Pharmaceuticals and Agrochemicals from Industrial Wastes
26 août 2022 - 26 août 2025
Our new highlight in ChemSusChem!
Identification of a second 16-hydroxytabersonine-O-methyltransferase suggests an evolutionary relationship between alkaloid and flavonoid metabolisms in Catharanthus roseus
26 août 2022 - 26 août 2025
We identified a second isoform of 16-hydroxytabersonine-O-methyltransferase enzyme that suggests an evolutionary relationship between alkaloid and flavonoid metabolisms in the Madagascar Periwinkle, a plant producing anti-cancer drugs - our new article in Protoplasma!
A new path for terpenoid biosynthesis
29 juillet 2022 - 29 juillet 2025
Our spotlight on the work of Tao and colleagues that discovered a new pathway for triterpene biosynthesis in which bifunctional class I terpene synthases from fungi catalyze both the synthesis of HexPP and its cyclization via their prenyltransferase (PTd) and terpene cyclase (TCd) domains.
Towards a Better Understanding of Toxin Biosynthesis in Seaweeds
21 juin 2022 - 21 juin 2025
We discuss in this Highlight article the importance of continuing to acquire new data on biosynthetic pathways in marine organisms for both diagnostic and metabolic-engineering purposes.
More than a Catharanthus plant: A multicellular and pluri-organelle alkaloid-producing factory
24 mars 2022 - 24 mars 2025
Spotlight on our model plant, the Madagascar periwinkle : much more than a plant, an alkaloid factory! A review in Current Opinion Plant Biology.
Social amoebae as a new chassis for drug production
21 février 2022 - 21 février 2024
Social amoebae as a new chassis for drug production : our new spotlight published in Trends in Biotechnology
Chromosome-scale genomes throw light on plant drug biosynthesis
14 février 2022 - 30 septembre 2024
Recent chromosome-scale genomes from prominent medicinal plants have provided unprecedent insight into the architecture and evolution of some prominent metabolic pathways. A story related in our new paper published in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences!
Marine drugs: Biology, pipelines, current and future prospects for production
13 décembre 2021 - 30 juin 2024
Do you know that marine organisms represent a huge reservoir of new pharmaceuticals? If you are interested, read our new research review paper published in Biotechnology advances!
Voatriafricanines A and B, Trimeric Vobasine-Aspidosperma-Aspidosperma Alkaloids from Voacanga africana
27 septembre 2021 - 31 mars 2024
Dr Mehdi Beniddir from the ANR project, MIACYC and collaborators describe the use of a molecular networking-targeted strategy to identify the naturally occurring voatriafricanines A and B (1 and 2), representing the first examples of vobasine-aspidosperma-aspidosperma monoterpene trisindole alkaloids.
Yeasts as Biopharmaceutical Production Platforms
30 septembre 2021 - 30 juin 2024
Curious about what kind of proteins or natural products are currently in yeast? Read our new opinion paper in Frontiers in Fungal Biology associating MYACIC project.
Computational biotechnology guides elucidation of the biosynthesis of the plant anticancer drug camptothecin
3 mai 2021
Highlight on the recent Ophiorrhiza pumila genome assembly published in Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal. It allows us to elucidate the biosynthetic pathway leading to the production of the anticancer drug campthotecin.
Advances in decomposing complex metabolite mixtures using substructure- and network-based computational metabolomics approaches
21 juin 2021 - 31 octobre 2021
Dr Mehdi Beniddir from the ANR project, MIACYC, just published a review about technical advances that will benefit all those metabolomics disciplines by transforming spectral data into knowledge that can answer biological questions.
Plant to insect horizontal gene transfer: empowering whiteflies
3 mai 2021
A spotlight published in Trends in Genetic on a recent study which provides compelling evidences supporting the idea that a plant-derived gene allows for the detoxification of plant defense metabolites in a polyphagous arthropod herbivore.
Peroxisome : a new hub for metabolic engineering in yeast
30 avril 2021 - 1 février 2023
First publication from MIACYC project in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology! The article shed light on the advantages of employing peroxisomes in the context of spatial reconfiguration and compile the recent breakthrough in yeast peroxisome engineering.
MIACYC
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