Wout Boerjan

The paper identifies PAL3 in Arabidopsis as a novel enzyme converting 3-carboxy-tyrosine into carboxy-p-coumaric acid, reclassifying it as a 3-carboxy-tyrosine ammonia lyase.

The paper engineers a tyrosine-specific phenylpropanoid pathway in plants and finds that it can overcome a seedling-lethal phenotype but causes developmental defects due to auxin transport inhibitor accumulation.

This study introduces furanocoumarin biosynthetic genes into tomato, leading to coumarin accumulation and altered growth, with implications for agricultural applications.

The paper identifies genetic factors influencing tomato fruit lipid content and links them to flavor-related volatile compounds through GWAS and QTL mapping.