Systems Biology in Plant Research

Abstract

Generally speaking, systems biology research in plants has not reached an advanced stage, a situation largely due to the low level of funding for basic plant research. There are two major reasons for this. First, crop species to which plant research outcomes could be applied are numerous and diverse, and many problems that need to be solved are species-specific. Therefore, resources are spread thinly among many different plant systems. There is also strong political pressure to shift plant research funding toward crop species at the expense of model systems, even though the crop systems are generally less tractable. Since quality, quantity, and correlativity of experimental data and a repeating cycle of experimental and theoretical work are critical for success in systems biology, it would be best to focus on model plant species at this stage. Second, the agribusiness industry is showing declining interest in applications of biotechnology. Due to the anti-GMO (genetically modified organism) movement in developed countries, the industry expects difficulty in marketing biotech-based highvalue products, such as functional foods, which could involve complex metabolic engineering. The declining research activities in the agribusiness industry also reduce the employment prospects for scientists trained in plant biology. Low funding levels are directly related to slower progress in new basic research areas, such as systems biology, especially when the research requires relatively large early investments and long periods of time for outcomes to be apparent. Furthermore, interdisciplinary research areas such as systems biology need to attract researchers from different disciplines to particular biological systems, which is difficult when funding levels are low and future job prospects are poor. In this context, it was