![Prashant Sonawane](https://cafnr.missouri.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Sonawane_Prashant-300x300.png)
Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Division of Biochemistry - CAFNR
Research at a glance
Area(s) of Expertise
Research Summary
Plant Metabolism lab aims to explore the spectacular chemical diversity of specialized (secondary) molecules produced by plants, and use synthetic biology and metabolic engineering platforms to pioneer applications in human health, nutrition, medicine and agriculture.
Plants synthesize a huge repertoire of diverse, lineage-specific Specialized (secondary) metabolites (also known as Natural Products). Although plant specialized metabolites play a central role in defense and stress responses, many of these compounds are also indispensable resources for human nutrition and medicine. In plants, all known specialized metabolites are derived from core/primary metabolites, which are vital for eukaryotic life. Plant derived specialized molecules/natural products have become an integral part of human health (steroid hormones; e.g. progesterone, estrogen), nutrition (e.g. vitamin D supplements, dietary supplements such as Tribulus extracts) and medicine [drugs for treatments ranging from mild inflammation, allergies to chronic illness and diseases; e.g. Vinblastine (Catharanthus roseus), Taxol (Taxus brevifolia), Digoxin (Digitalis lanata) etc.]. To meet the increasing demands of high-value specialized compounds, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering approaches are required for high scale production of these compounds. Unfortunately, our knowledge about biosynthesis of many specialized metabolites is extremely limited, therefore constraining state-of-the-art synthetic biology applications that can harness different classes of metabolites. Moreover, our access to high value metabolites in sustainable plant production systems remains restricted, as these compounds are often produced in small amounts as part of complex mixtures. With the capacity to apply new technological advances in sequencing, bioinformatics and metabolomics across multiple plant species, coupled with optimized heterologous production systems, we are now poised to solve the outstanding questions of plant specialized metabolism that has eluded researchers for decades.
Our research aims to tackle several key challenges required to harness plant specialized metabolism: 1) The discovery of biosynthetic pathways that convert core/primary metabolites into high-value specialized metabolites, 2) Evolution, structural diversity and regulation of plant natural product pathways, 3) Metabolic engineering for sustainable production of these compounds in plants.
Educational background
- Ph.D. Biotechnology, Savitribai Phule Pune University
Courses taught
- BIOCHM 4272 – Biochemistry