Engineering Synthetic Symbiosis Between Plant and Bacteria to Deliver Nitrogen to Crops

工程植物和细菌之间的合成共生为作物提供氮

• 批准号: 1331098
• 负责人: John Peters
• 金额: $ 242.86万
• 依托单位: Montana State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2017-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1331098&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Engineering; Synthetic; Symbiosis; Between; Plant

PI: John W. Peters (Montana State University)CoPIs: Jean-Michel Ane (University of Wisconsin - Madison), Michael Udvardi (The Samuel Roberts Nobel Foundation) and Christopher A. Voigt (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)Key Collaborators: Giles E. Oldroyd (John Innes Centre, UK) and Phillip S. Poole (John Innes Centre, Oxford University, UK)Nitrogen is an essential element of biological molecules and life on earth. Lack of usable nitrogen limits growth of microbes, plants, and animals. Scarcity of nitrogen in agricultural soils limits plant production of food, feed, fiber and fuel. Nature solved the nitrogen limitation problem via evolution of biological nitrogen fixation in a type of bacteria, diazotrophs, that are able to reduce atmospheric N2 to NH3, which is readily assimilated into biological molecules. Biological nitrogen fixation is promoted by a complex metal containing enzyme called nitrogenase, whose oxygen-sensitivity may explain its restricted distribution amongst bacteria. Some plants, including most legumes and a few non-legumes form intimate, nitrogen-fixing symbioses with diazotrophs that provide the plants with ammonia. As a consequence, legumes have been an integral part of sustainable agricultural systems for thousands of years. Unfortunately, many important food species, including the grasses maize/corn, rice, and wheat cannot establish effective nitrogen-fixing symbioses with diazotrophs, making them dependent on nitrogenous fertilizers for high yield. Large-scale use of industrially-produced nitrogen-fertilizer has doubled the influx of nitrogen into the terrestrial biogeochemical nitrogen-cycle, with serious negative consequences for human health and the natural environment. Therefore, the long-term sustainability of massive nitrogen-fertilizer inputs in agriculture has come into question. This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of investigators from the US and UK to solve the dual nitrogen problems of nitrogen-fertilizer over-use in developed countries and soil nitrogen-paucity in developing countries by developing effective endophytic (bacteria inside the root) and associative (bacteria attached outside the root) nitrogen-fixing symbioses in a model and a crop plant species. The overarching goal of the project is to develop effective N2-fixing symbioses between the model C4-grass, Setaria viridis, as well as the related crop species, Zea mays, with the endophytic bacterium, Rhizobium sp. IRBG74, as well as the associative bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescenes Pf5. Successful deployment of biological nitrogen fixation in model or crop grass species will pave the way for a second Green Revolution to increase crop yields for resource-poor farmers and decrease the use and environmental-impact of industrial nitrogen-fertilizers by wealthier farmers. This project will establish a powerful new model system for the study of plant-microbe interactions and demonstrate the power of synthetic biology in engineering new associative relationships and interdependencies that have the potential to be universal for all crop plants. It will test this potential in the important crop, maize. The integrated US-UK research partnership will provide a unique training opportunity for students and post-doctoral associates with active exchange of personnel between academic laboratories and research foundations in both countries. Data and materials generated in the study including plasmid constructs and genetically modified bacterial and plant species will be made available via websites maintained in the US and the UK. To broaden the impact of the work, traditional and non-traditional outreach strategies will be used to help K-12 teachers, students, and the public understand the fundamentals and benefits of interdisciplinary research and the implications of synthetic biology for the next generation of biotechnological solutions in agriculture.

PI：约翰·W·彼得斯（蒙大拿州立大学）科普斯：让·米歇尔·安妮（威斯康星大学 - 麦迪逊大学），迈克尔·乌德瓦迪（Michael Roberts Nobel Foundation）和克里斯托弗·A·沃伊格（Christopher A.地球上生物分子和生命的元素。 缺乏可用的氮限制了微生物，植物和动物的生长。农业土壤中氮的稀缺性限制了植物生产食物，饲料，纤维和燃料。 大自然通过一种能够将大气N2降低至NH3的细菌，重18zogrophs中的生物氮固定的进化来解决氮的限制问题，该细菌很容易将大气N2降低到NH3。 生物氮固定是通过一种称为氮气酶的酶的复杂金属来促进的，其氧气敏感可能解释了其在细菌中的限制分布。 一些植物，包括大多数豆类和一些非葡萄糖，形成了与重18zotrophs的亲密，固定氮的共生，可为植物提供氨。 结果，数千年来，豆类一直是可持续农业系统不可或缺的一部分。 不幸的是，许多重要的食物物种，包括草玉米/玉米，大米和小麦无法与重生营养物质建立有效的氮固定共生物，从而使它们依赖于硝基肥料以高产量。大规模使用工业生产的氮气饲养剂已将氮气涌入陆生生物地球化学氮周期，对人类健康和自然环境造成了严重的负面影响。 因此，农业中大量氮气投入的长期可持续性受到质疑。该项目汇集了来自美国和英国的研究人员跨学科的团队，以解决发达国家中氮屈光度的双重氮问题和发展中国家的土壤硝化方法，通过发展有效的内生植物（根源）和氮气植物（nientrogent）的菌丝植物（nitrogen fropt）的种类和一个模型。 该项目的总体目标是在模型C4草，塞塔里亚·维里迪斯（Setaria viridis）以及相关的农作物物种Zea Mays和内生细菌，根瘤菌SP之间开发有效的N2固定共生。 IRBG74以及关联细菌，假单胞菌PF5。 成功部署生物氮在模型或作物草物种中的生物氮将为第二次绿色革命铺平道路，以增加资源贫乏的农民的农作物产量，并减少富裕农民对工业氮肥的使用和环境影响。该项目将建立一个强大的新模型系统，用于研究植物 - 微生物相互作用，并证明合成生物学在工程新的关联关系和相互依赖性中的力量，这些关系有可能对所有作物植物进行通用。 它将在重要农作物中测试这种潜力。 综合的US-UK研究合作伙伴关系将为学生和博士后同事提供独特的培训机会，并在两国的学术实验室和研究基金会之间积极交流人员。 研究中产生的数据和材料包括质粒构建体以及遗传修饰的细菌和植物物种将通过美国和英国维护的网站提供。 为了扩大作品的影响，传统和非传统外展策略将用于帮助K-12教师，学生和公众了解跨学科研究的基本原理和好处，以及合成生物学对下一代农业生物技术解决方案的影响。