General

Evangelos C. Tatsis
Principal Investigator/ CEPAMS Group Leader
Institute of Plant Physiology & Ecology, Shanghai Institutes of Biological Sciences
CAS-JIC Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Sciences
Center of Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics
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Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, SIBS, CAS
Building 2, 3rd floor, office 308
300 Feng Lin Road, Shanghai 200032, China
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Email: etatsis@sippe.ac.cn; evangelos.tatsis@jic.ac.uk


Research Interests

Plants are an inexhaustible pool of structurally diverse chemicals, which are traditionally known as natural products. Many of these compounds have been used as therapeutic agents since antiquity and have played a crucial role in improving the quality of life. The fundamental goal of our group is to determine how plants make these chemicals. Our major focus is to elucidate, understand and engineer the metabolic pathways which are responsible for the biosynthesis of natural products from Chinese medicinal plants. To address these important goals, we will establish a genome enabled approach, utilizing bioinformatics, molecular biology and enzymology techniques, and a plant based synthetic biology platform.

Education

October 1996 – January 2001: Bachelor in Chemistry at Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece 

December 2001 – January 2006: PhD in Chemistry at Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece

Thesis Title: Analysis and study of composition of Hypericum perforatum extracts with the use of spectroscopic methods and hyphenated techniques

PhD Advisor: Prof Ioannis P. Gerothanassis



Postdoctoral Research Experience

April 2008 – September 2013: Post Doc Research Fellow in NMR/Biosynthesis Group, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Post Doc Advisor: P.D. Dr Bernd Schneider

October 2013 – August 2017: Senior Post Doc Research Associate in Department of Biological Chemistry, The John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK 

Post Doc Advisor: Prof. Sarah O´Connor




Publications

2017

Evangelos C. Tatsis, Marta Ines Soares Teto Carqueijeiro, Thomas Dugé de Bernonville, Jakob Franke, Thu-Thuy T. Dang, Audrey Oudin, Arnaud Lanoue, Florent Lafontaine, Anna K. Stavrinides, Marc Clastre, Vincent Courdavault, Sarah E. O’Connor. A three enzyme system to generate the Strychnos alkaloid scaffold from a central biosynthetic intermediate. Nature Communications 8: 316.

 

Thu-Thuy T. Dang, Jakob Franke, Evangelos C. Tatsis, Sarah E. O’Connor. Dual catalytic activity of a cytochrome P450 controls bifurcation at a metabolic branch point of alkaloid biosynthesis in Rauwolfia serpentina. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 56: 9440-9444.

 

Richard M. E. Payne, Deyang Xu, Emilien Foureau, Marta Ines Soares Teto Carqueijeiro, Audrey Oudin, Thomas Dugé de Bernonville, Vlastimil Novak, Meike Burow, Carl-Erik Olsen, D. Marc Jones, Evangelos C. Tatsis, Ali Pendle, Barbara Ann Halkier, Fernando Geu-Flores, Vincent Courdavault, Hussam Hassan Nour-Eldin & Sarah E. O'Connor. An NPF transporter exports a central monoterpene indole alkaloid intermediate from the vacuole. Nature Plants 3: 16208.

 

2016

Anna Stavrinides, Evangelos C. Tatsis, Lorenzo Caputi, Emilien Foureau, Clare E. M. Stevenson, David M. Lawson, Vincent Courdavault & Sarah E. O'Connor. Structural investigation of heteroyohimbine alkaloid synthesis reveals active site elements that control stereoselectivity. Nature Communications 7: 12116.

 

Evangelos C. Tatsis & Sarah E. O'Connor. New Development in Engineering Plant pathways. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 42: 126-132.

 

Anne-Christin Warskulat, Evangelos C. Tatsis, Bettina Dudek, Marco Kai, Sybille Lorenz, Bernd Schneider. An unprecedented utilization of pelargonidin and indole for the biosynthesis of plant indole alkaloids. CHEMBIOCHEM 17(4): 318-327.

 

2015

Anna Stavrinides, Evangelos C. Tatsis, Emilien Foureau, Lorenzo Caputi, Franziska Kellner, Vincent Courdavault, Sarah E. O’Connor. Unlocking the Diversity of Alkaloids in Catharanthus roseus: Nuclear Localization Suggests Metabolic Channeling in Secondary Metabolism. Chemistry & Biology 22(3): 336–341.

 

2014

Evangelos C. Tatsis, Eva Eylert, Ravi Kumar Maddula, Elena Ostrozhenkova, Aleš Svatoš, Wolfgang Eisenreich, Bernd Schneider. Biosynthesis of Nudicaulins: A 13CO2-Pulse/Chase Labeling Study with Papaver nudicaule. CHEMBIOCHEM 15(11): 1645-1650.

 

2013

Evangelos C. Tatsis, Hartmut Böhm, Bernd Schneider. Occurrence and structure of nudicaulins in flowers of papaveraceous species Phytochemistry 92(1): 105-112.

 

2012

Evangelos C. Tatsis, Anu Schaumlöffel, Anne C. Warskulat, Georges Massiot, Bernd Schneider, Gerhard Bringmann. Nudicaulins, the Elusive Flower Pigments of Yellow Papaver nudicaule – Revised Structure and Absolute Configuration Organic Letters 15(1): 156-159.

 

Jingjing Fang, Aina Ramsay, Christian Paetz, Evangelos C. Tatsis, Sullivan Renouard, Christophe Hano, Eric Grand, Ophélie Fliniaux, Albrecht Roscher, Francois Mesnard, Bernd Schneider. Concentration kinetics of secoisolariciresinol diglucoside and its biosynthetic precursor coniferin in developing flaxseeds Phytochemical Analysis 224: 41–46.

 

2008

Evangelos C. Tatsis, Vassiliki Exarchou, Anastassios N. Troganis, Ioannis P. Gerothanassis. 1H-NMR determination of hypericin and pseudohypericin in complex natural mixtures by the use of strongly deshielded OH groups. Analytica Chimica Acta 607(2): 219-226.

 

2007

Evangelos C. Tatsis, Sjef Boeren, Vassiliki Exarchou, Anastassios N. Troganis, Jacques Vervoort, Ioannis P. Gerothanassis. Identification of the major constituents of Hypericum perforatum by LC/SPE/NMR and/or LC/MS. Phytochemistry 68: 383–393.

 

2002

Dimitris Skalkos, Evangelos Tatsis, Ioannis P. Gerothanassisb, and Anastasios Troganis. Towards a consensus structure of hypericin in solution: direct evidence for a single tautomer and different ionization states in protic and nonprotic solvents by the use of variable temperature gradient 1H-NMR. Tetrahedron 58(24): 4925-4929. 


Honors & Distinctions

  • European Union - Marie Curie Fellowship 2008
  • CAS-JIC CEPAMS Group Leader s 2017
  • Royal Society - Newton Advanced Fellowship 2019