Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are a diverse class of carbohydrates which support the health and development of infants. The vast health benefits of HMOs have made them a commercial target for microbial production; however, producing the approximately 200 structurally diverse HMOs at scale has proved difficult. Here we produce a diversity of HMOs by leveraging the robust carbohydrate anabolism of plants. This diversity includes high-value and complex HMOs, such as lacto-N-fucopentaose I. HMOs produced in transgenic plants provided strong bifidogenic properties, indicating their ability to serve as a prebiotic supplement with potential applications in adult and infant health. Technoeconomic analyses demonstrate that producing HMOs in plants provides a path to the large-scale production of specific HMOs at lower prices than microbial production platforms. Our work demonstrates the promise in leveraging plants for the low-cost and sustainable production of HMOs.

母乳低聚糖 (HMO) 是一种支持婴儿健康和发育的多种碳水化合物。 HMO 的巨大健康益处使其成为微生物生产的商业目标；然而，事实证明，大规模生产约 200 种结构多样的 HMO 非常困难。在这里，我们利用植物强大的碳水化合物合成代谢作用来生产多种 HMO。这种多样性包括高价值和复杂的 HMO，例如乳-N-岩藻五糖 I。转基因植物中产生的 HMO 具有强大的双歧特性，表明它们能够作为益生元补充剂，在成人和婴儿健康方面具有潜在的应用。技术经济分析表明，在植物中生产 HMO 提供了一条以比微生物生产平台更低的价格大规模生产特定 HMO 的途径。我们的工作展示了利用植物低成本、可持续生产 HMO 的前景。