The actual collaborative proposal will contribute to addressing several questions on valorization of crocins and picrocrocin and its translation into industrial products: (i) Does the crossing of the modified tomato with mutants that accumulate high content of zeaxanthin will increase the concentration of these valuable metabolites?. (ii) The use of modern techniques extraction will enhance the extraction of these metabolites?. (iii) Show these engineered tomatoes enhanced agronomical properties?. (iv) Show these engineered tomatoes enhanced or new bioactive activities?.

Program of Main activites to be performed during UCLM visits to the IBMCP:

1)        Virtual and face to face visits. Define genetic and molecular engineering approaches to optimize a tomato and potato production platform.

2)        Short term missions of UCLM partners at the IBMCP to participate in the construction and assembly of different modules using the GoldengBraid technology developed at the IBMCP.

3)        Short term missions to establish transformation of tomato and potato with the construct

4)        Short term missions to perform metabolomics analysis on the different materials developed jointly

5)        Short term missions to define functional tests and evalution of the reuslts

This collaborative project will offer new insights on the underlying mechanism involved in the engineering of the tomato and potato carotenoid pathway to produce crocins and picrocrocin, and will provide a new source for the exploitation and manipulation of these compounds for a broad range of industrial applications, from the food to the pharmaceutical sectors. It will also facilitate the interaction between the two groups that have been collaborating actively and fruitfully.