Plant synthetic biology
Synthetic biotechnology for artificially designing or transforming existing living organisms is constantly occupying the traditional market and has diversified technological development and industrial implementation directions. Based on its own unique metabolic network and advantages such as low cost, safer, and high yield, plants provide huge potential for the transformation and application of synthetic biology . As people develop mature design principles, concepts and components in microbial synthetic organisms, plant synthetic organisms are becoming the next chapter of synthetic organisms.
Patent literature is an important information carrier for recording the development of plant synthetic biology technology. Relevant searches, statistics, and analysis can be used to reveal the technical life cycle of the development of plant synthetic biology, analyze the competitive landscape in the field of plant synthetic biology, and judge the future development space in the field of plant synthetic biology. Through the systematic search and analysis of domestic and foreign plant synthetic biology patents, it will help sort out the development trends in this field and provide reference for the development and application of plant synthetic biology technology.
Zhigeng starts from the perspective of patent analysis and analyzes them from two aspects: the overall global patent situation and different industry institutions, in order to provide reference and inspiration for domestic plant synthetic biology startups.
Plant synthetic biotechnology is in a rapid development stage
In the last century, in 1989, the Scripps Institute of the United States published the first article in the journal Nature in the use of tobacco plants to produce functional recombinant antibody . molecular agriculture (Molecular farming) has since started the first wave and opened the curtain for the development of plant synthetic biology for 30 years.
From the patent layout over the years, it can be found that the development of plant synthetic biology has generally gone through three stages. The first stage (1990-1998): In the budding stage, due to the unclear technology market, the number of patent applicants is very small, the number of patent applications and authorizations is less than 100 pieces per year, and most of them are basic patents with principle; the second stage (1999-2012): The slow development stage, the number of patent applications and authorizations is stable at 100-500 pieces per year, and the number of patent applications and authorizations and the number of patent applicants in this stage have increased significantly; the third stage (2013-to-present): The rapid development stage, with the continuous breakthrough of technology, the market has gradually expanded, the number of patent applicants and patent applications have shown a significant growth trend, but the number of patent authorizations is relatively stable, and the patent authorization rate has shown a significant downward trend, and it has begun to enter the mature stage of technology.
Figure 1 Patent application and authorization trends from 1990 to 2021
Figure 2 Patent life cycle from 1990 to 2021
China and the United States lead the field of plant synthetic biology
China and the United States are important sources of technology and technology response in the world Using the market
According to the analysis of the patent applicant's region (Figure 3) and the patent disclosure region (Figure 4), , China and the United States, is an important technology source region in the world, and , technology application market . In terms of patent applications, the United States ranks first in the world, accounting for about 38.34% of the total global patent applications, and China ranks second in the world, accounting for about 25.00% of the world. The United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Germany and South Korea ranked third to seventh respectively, with more than 100 patent applications. In terms of the number of patents disclosed by , China ranks first in the world, accounting for 30.81% of the world, and is the most important technology application market in the world. The number of US patents disclosed by 9.67%, ranking second in the world.Australia, Canada and Japan rank third to fifth in the world respectively.
Figure 3 Technology source country TOP10
Figure 4 Technology application TOP10 countries
Through the analysis of patent flow directions of China, the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea (Figure 5), the technology origin and market layout of plant synthetic biology in the five major situations is demonstrated. Zhigeng found that China and the United States have made a wider patent layout, among which American institution has made the most international layout . In addition to the United States, it is mainly in China, and there are also appropriate layouts in Europe, Japan and South Korea. Chinese institution patent layout is mainly concentrated in China, and the international layout is relatively lacking in , which may have an adverse impact on future product exports.
Figure 5 Patent Technology Flow chart
Chinese and American institutions exclusively account for the top ten patent applications in the world
Patent citations reflect the frequency of references to this patent by researchers in the field and are an important indicator for measuring patent quality. According to the analysis of the number of cited patents in the field of plant synthetic biology (Figure 6), 314 patents with citations exceeding 50, accounting for about 1.70% of the total patents (18,466). This study will define patents cited by more than 50 times as core patent in this field, and conduct in-depth analysis of the main application institutions of core patents.
Figure 6 Number of patents and cited amounts
According to the analysis of the main patent application institutions of the overall patent application institution (Table 1) in plant synthetic biology, it was found that US Dow Yi Agricultural Company is the institution with the largest number of patent applications. Among the top ten institutions in the world with patent applications, are located in the United States , only two institutions in China, , Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Qingdao Qingyuan Compound Co., Ltd., respectively, rank eighth and tenth. However, the top ten of core patent application institutions (Table 2) are all American institutions , among which Harvard University Presidents and Fellows Association have 36 core patents, ranking first in the world. It can be seen that patents applied by Chinese institutions are cited by at a low frequency, and the patent quality and technical influence need to be improved .
Table 1 Overall technical application TOP10 organization table
Table 2 The core technology application TOP10 organization table
various enable technology breakthroughs to promote the development of the field
The core idea of plant synthesis biology is Based on standardized biological components to carry out engineering transformation to To obtain new biological functions, we can see that the quantitative and elements are standardized, the development and application of computing tools are , the accurate and convenient gene editing tool , the efficient and stable transformation method and the diversity of plant chassis mining is the basis for fully realizing plant design reconstruction.
For the above five types of plant synthetic biology technologies, Zhigeng has conducted a technical patent application trend analysis for the past 20 years (Figure 7). Overall, the number of patent applications in in the field of component development and gene editing in the field of , accounting for 30.20% and 24.63% of the entire plant synthetic biology field, respectively, the number of patent applications in the field of genetic system (0.54%) and tool design (0.36%) is relatively small, and the number of chassis cell/plant bioreactor fields (0.08%) is the least.In terms of development trends, component opening patent applications are relatively stable , which significantly exceeded other sub-fields from 2001 to 2005, 2006 to 2010, and 2011 to 2015; the number of patent applications in the gene editing field showed a continuous growth trend, surpassing the component development field from 2016 to 2020, accounting for about 39.06% of the patent volume of plant synthesis biology; the number of patent applications in the field of genetic systems and tool design is relatively stable, and the field of chassis cells/plant bioreactors is still in its infancy.
visible component development and gene editing technology is the most critical enabling technology that promotes the continuous development and maturity of plant synthetic biology. Among them, gene editing technology is still in the stage of accelerated development, and the technology related to plant chassis cell , which best highlights the uniqueness of this field, is expected to become the next breakthrough point in industry .
Figure 7 Trend of technical patent application in the five sub-fields from 2001 to 2020
Finally, based on the analysis of the five sub-fields of plant synthetic biology in 2001-2020, it was found that foreign patent application occupies a relatively dominant position in China . All patents in the subfield of chassis cells in China are applied by foreign institutions. In addition, the number of patent applications in foreign institutions in the fields of tool design, genetic system and component development accounts for as high as 53.19%, 49.09% and 41.57%. Domestic institutions only show strong technical barriers in the field of gene editing, accounting for more than 80%. It can be seen that there are still boring problems in the technical level of different sub-fields in China, and there is still a long way to go in technical research!
Figure 8 Comparative analysis of China's public patents and foreign patents in China from 2001 to 2020
Summary and Outlook
Since 2013, the global patent layout of plant synthesis biology technology has entered a period of rapid development, with high patent application popularity and difficulty in innovation. As the world's most important technology source region and technology application market, China and the United States lead the entire field of plant synthetic biology.
technology level, component development and gene editing are key enablers to promote the continuous development and maturity of plant synthetic biology, and gene editing technology is still in the stage of accelerated development. In addition, the development of related technologies for plant chassis cells needs to be vigorously strengthened, and giving full play to the uniqueness of plant chassis is expected to become the next breakthrough point in the industry.
In addition, for domestic practitioners in the field of plant synthesis, Zhigeng suggests that must continue to pay attention to technological source innovation . Through the analysis of foreign patents in China in the five sub-fields, it can be seen that foreign patent applications have always occupied a relatively dominant position in China. In order to break the foreign patent barrier , the road to domestic technology research has a long way to go; must pay more attention to the application of core patents . l4. Currently, the top ten core patent application institutions in the world are all American institutions, and the patents applied for by domestic institutions are low in frequency, and the quality and technical influence of patents need to be improved; . We must strengthen the international layout of paying attention to its own patent protection. Although China and the United States are important technology sources and technology application markets in the world, in addition to local areas, the United States has extensive layouts in China, Europe, Japan and South Korea; while Chinese patents are mainly concentrated in China, Europe, Japan and South Korea, and their international layout is very scarce. In the future, it needs to be strengthened more to help the commercialization of domestic plant synthetic biology technology globally!
