Starch- and plant-protein-based glues, for example, do not have the strength of petrochemical-derived superglues. On the other hand, plant-derived chemicals have unique advantages for other uses. Recombinant proteins, for example, can be designed and produced in plants to provide tissue glues analogous to the fibrinogen that naturally forms around a flesh wound. Emerging technologies offer dramatic new capabilities to alter plant metabolic pathways, opening up unprecedented opportunities to produce high-value chemicals from renewable resources
