The aim of the HyperSpace project is to develop the bioeconomic potential of the medicinal plant Hypericum perforatum L. (St. John’s wort) and related species on different levels. This includes the identification of new genotypes, genes, enzymes, active ingredients and functions that can be used for the industrial production of higher-quality St. John’s wort extracts as well as defined ingredients and prenylated derivatives of other natural products. The planned cataloguing is based on the unique collection of St. John’s herbs of the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK).

St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum L.), which is primarily used for the treatment of depression, but also has antibacterial, anti-cancer and anti-dementia properties, is one of the important special crops in Saxony-Anhalt.

The project combines the expertise of different disciplines in Saxony-Anhalt and involves metabolite characterisation (Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, IPB), genome analysis, transcriptomics, developmental biology and cultivation of St. John’s wort (Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, IPK), digitalisation of processes (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, MLU) and socio- and techno-economic evaluation of the products (Fraunhofer Institute of Plant Biochemistry). IMW). In addition to Hypericum-specific findings and products, the establishment of a new technology (SpaceEx) for the spatially resolved recording of tissue-specific gene expression patterns, new Agrobacterium strains for functional gene validation in plants and an innovative plasmid sequencing method is also expected, which are expected to lead to a start-up for synthetic biology in Saxony-Anhalt.