Over the recent years, Nicotiana benthamiana has gained great importance as a chassis for the production of high value, low volume pharmaceuticals and/or active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The process involving infiltration of the N. benthamiana leaves with Agrobacterium spp, harbouring vectors with the gene of interest, facilitates transient expression. To date, little information is available on the effect of the agro-infiltration process on the metabolome of N. benthamiana, which is necessary to improve the process for large-scale, renewable manufacturing of high value compounds and medical products. Hence, the objective of the present study was to assess metabolic adaptation of N. benthamiana as a response to the presence of Agrobacterium. The present study elucidated changes of the steady-state metabolism in the agroinfiltrated leaf area, the area around the infection and the rest of the plant. Furthermore, the study discusses the phenotypic advantages of the N. benthamiana lab strain, optimised for agro-infiltration, compared to three other wild accessions. Results showed that the lab strain has a different metabolic composition and showed less alterations of the phenylpropanoid pathway and cell wall remodelling in the agroinfiltrated leaf areas, for example chlorogenic acid, cadaverine and C18:0–2-glycerol ester. In conclusion, both of these alterations present potential candidates to improve the phenotype of the N. benthamiana lab strain for a more efficient transient expression process.

近年来，本塞姆氏烟草作为生产高价值、小批量药物和/或活性药物成分 (API) 的基础而变得非常重要。该过程涉及用带有目的基因的载体的农杆菌浸润本塞姆氏烟草叶子，促进瞬时表达。迄今为止，关于农业渗透过程对本塞姆氏烟草代谢组影响的信息很少，而这对于改进高价值化合物和医疗产品的大规模、可再生制造过程是必要的。因此，本研究的目的是评估本塞姆氏烟草对农杆菌存在的反应的代谢适应。本研究阐明了农杆菌渗透叶区、感染周围区域和植物其余部分稳态代谢的变化。此外，该研究还讨论了本塞姆氏烟草实验室菌株的表型优势，该菌株针对农业渗透进行了优化，与其他三种野生品种相比。结果表明，实验室菌株具有不同的代谢组成，并且在农杆菌渗透的叶区中苯丙素途径和细胞壁重塑的改变较小，例如绿原酸、尸胺和 C18:0–2-甘油酯。总之，这两种改变都为改善本塞姆氏烟草实验室菌株的表型提供了潜在的候选者，以实现更有效的瞬时表达过程。