A world-first effort to build an artificial chromosome entirely from scratch in plants has received more
than $12 million in funding from the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) through its
Synthetic Plants program.
Bioplatforms Australia are proud to be supporting this project led by researchers from our synthetic
biology facilities based at The University of Western Australia (UWA) and Macquarie University (MQ). An
international team of researchers, including Professor Ryan Lister and Dr James Lloyd from UWA and the
ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, will join Distinguished Professor Ian Paulsen and Dr Briardo
Llorente at the Australian Genome Foundry (AGF) and ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology at
MQ. The team also includes collaborators from the University of Cambridge and biotech company
Phytoform Labs, and will pioneer technologies to design, build and install synthetic chromosomes in
plants.
The project will use the moss Physcomitrium patens – a unique, highly engineerable plant – as a
development platform to build and test a bottom-up synthetic chromosome, before transferring it into
potato plants. It will build upon the recent MQ achievement with the global Sc2.0 project to create the
world’s first synthetic eukaryotic genome from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Baker’s yeast) and a new-to-
nature tRNA neochromosome.
Professor Lister said the synthetic chromosome would contain key genetic elements including synthetic
centromeres and telomeres, and was designed to function as an independent, inheritable unit within the
plant’s cells.
“This project is pushing the frontier of synthetic biology in plants,” Professor Lister said.
“For the first time, we’re not just editing DNA, we’re attempting to write entire chromosomes from the
ground up.”
“If successful, it will unlock powerful new ways to give crops complex new traits such as improved
resilience, productivity, or the ability to produce useful materials.”
Dr Lloyd said the research marked a major leap in plant synthetic biology.
“While synthetic chromosomes have been achieved in yeast and mammalian cells, this will be the first
attempt to create and deploy one entirely from scratch in a plant,” Dr Lloyd said.
ARIA’s Synthetic Plants program, led by Programme Director Angie Burnett, supports ambitious, high-
risk research to enable fully synthetic plant genomes in the future.
Professor Lister said the project delivered on ARIA’s vision to push the boundaries of what’s possible
through bold scientific innovation.