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Analysis of institutional authors

Lozano-Juste, JorgeCorresponding Author

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December 11, 2025
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A Chemical Probe for Increasing Leaf Tocopherol Levels by Coordinated Modulation of Biosynthesis, Competition and Storage

Publicated to: PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL. - 2025-12-01 (), DOI: 10.1111/pbi.70459

Authors:

Perez-Colao; P; Glauser; G; Cruces; J; Lozano-Juste; J; Rodríguez-Concepción; M
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Affiliations

GalChimia SA, Parque Empresarial Touro,Parcelas 26-27, Fonte Diaz, A Coruna, Spain - Author
Univ Neuchatel, Neuchatel Platform Analyt Chem, Neuchatel, Switzerland - Author
Univ Politecn Valencia, Inst Plant Mol & Cell Biol IBMCP, CSIC, Valencia, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Plant biofortification with phytonutrients typically relies on metabolic engineering strategies known as 'push' (enhancing biosynthetic flux), 'block' (inhibiting competing pathways) and 'pull' (promoting metabolite storage). Here, we describe a novel synthetic compound, X57, that simultaneously targets biosynthesis, competition and storage to enhance leaf tocopherol content. Tocopherols protect plants against oxidative stress, have a dietary value as vitamin E and are highly appreciated antioxidants in food and cosmetic formulations. X57 exerts a primary 'push' effect by inducing tocopherol biosynthesis, in part by reactivating a direct pathway that reduces geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP) to phytyl diphosphate, bypassing the need for chlorophyll-derived phytol. Accordingly, X57 promotes tocopherol accumulation in etiolated seedlings and restores tocopherol synthesis in mutants deficient in phytol phosphorylation. The 'block' effect is mediated by down-regulation of GGPP consumption for carotenoid synthesis. X57 also induces a 'pull' effect via proliferation of plastoglobules (PG), plastidial lipoprotein bodies that synthesise and store tocopherols. X57-induced PG proliferation is driven by increased tocopherol levels and up-regulation of genes for PG structural proteins such as fibrillins. The unveiled genetic networks simultaneously coordinating plastidial isoprenoid metabolism and plastid differentiation might only be present in higher plants, because X57 does not promote but reduces tocopherol accumulation in Marchantia polymorpha.
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Keywords

ArabidopsisBiofortificationCarotenoid biosynthesisChloroplast developmentEnzymeMetabolismPhytyl diphosphatePlastidPlastoglobuleResponsesStressTocopherol

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2025, it was in position 8/273, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Plant Sciences. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-03:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 2.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 2 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 19.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 3 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 2 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Switzerland.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Perez-Colao, Pablo) and Last Author (Rodriguez-Concepcion, Manuel).

the authors responsible for correspondence tasks have been LOZANO JUSTE, JORGE and Rodriguez-Concepcion, Manuel.

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Awards linked to the item

We thank Felix Kessler (University of Neuchatel) for the 35S:FBN7a-YFP line, Peter Dormann and Katharina Gutbrod (University of Bonn) for providing seeds of the vte5 mutants, and Miguel Angel Blazquez and Macarena Mellado-Sanchez (IBMCP) for providing Marchantia polymorpha thalli. We are also grateful to Jose M. Perez-Beser and Esther Pau-Ramos (IBMCP) for general technical support, Maria T. Minguez (University of Valencia SCSIE Microscopy Section) for her expert support with TEM, Javier Forment (IBMCP Bioinformatics platform) for his assistance with RNA-seq and BLAST analyses, and the IBMCP Metabolomics platform staff for help with HPLC.
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