SBIR Phase I: Targeted Production of Spider Silk Fibroins in Plant Trichomes

SBIR 第一阶段：在植物毛状体中定向生产蜘蛛丝素蛋白

• 批准号: 1045709
• 负责人: Ryan Shepherd
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: PhylloTech Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-01-01 至 2011-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1045709&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Targeted; Production; Spider

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will investigate the feasibility of producing spider silk fibroins in plant trichomes. Synthetic spider silk has great potential as an environmentally-friendly biomaterial because it is very flexible yet has a tensile strength greater than steel. A great need exists for a novel strategy of spider silk fibroin production in a renewable heterologous system that will allow efficient harvest and recovery. The opportunity that is being pursued is the utilization of a natural mechanism for protein production and purification in a genetically-tractable model plant. Our specific technological innovation is the targeted expression of spider silk proteins within the gland cells of leaf surface structures called glandular secreting trichomes, to achieve high levels of heterologous protein production outside of the main plant body. The research objectives will be to drive the expression of spider silk fibroin in trichomes and then investigate novel methods of fibroin recovery. This work will demonstrate that spider silk fibroins can be produced by plants in a cost-effective manner, and will develop a foundation for the large-scale, photosynthetic production of next-generation biomaterials. The broader impacts/commercial potential of this project will consist of fundamental studies to determine the feasibility of producing a revolutionary industrial biomaterial in a renewable, plant-based system. The results of these studies will not only demonstrate that biomaterials can be produced and purified from plants, but they will also have great implications for understanding about the biosynthetic hardware of specialized plant structures called glandular secreting trichomes. This work should lead to the development of novel ways of achieving industrial biomaterial production without the use of toxic chemicals, and could thus have great societal impact by decreasing the necessity of utilizing large amounts of hazardous compounds in industrial processes. The goal of this project is to develop the foundation for the photosynthetic production of environmentally-friendly biomaterials.

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将研究在植物毛状体中生产蜘蛛丝素的可行性。人造蜘蛛丝作为一种环境友好的生物材料具有巨大的潜力，因为它非常灵活，而且抗拉强度比钢更大。在可再生的异种系统中，非常需要一种新的蜘蛛丝素生产策略，以实现有效的收获和回收。正在寻求的机会是利用一种自然机制在遗传上易驯化的模式植物中生产和纯化蛋白质。我们的具体技术创新是有针对性地在叶表面结构的腺体细胞内表达蜘蛛丝蛋白，称为腺体分泌毛状体，以实现植物主体外高水平的异源蛋白生产。这项研究的目标将是推动蜘蛛丝素在毛状体中的表达，然后探索回收丝素的新方法。这项工作将证明蜘蛛丝素可以由植物以经济高效的方式生产，并将为大规模、光合作用生产下一代生物材料奠定基础。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将包括基础研究，以确定在可再生的植物性系统中生产革命性工业生物材料的可行性。这些研究的结果不仅将证明生物材料可以从植物中生产和纯化，而且它们还将对理解被称为腺分泌毛状体的特殊植物结构的生物合成硬件具有重要意义。这项工作应有助于开发实现不使用有毒化学品的工业生物材料生产的新方法，从而减少在工业过程中使用大量危险化合物的必要性，从而产生巨大的社会影响。该项目的目标是为光合作用生产环境友好型生物材料奠定基础。