CAREER: Abiotic degradation of emerging RNA interference pesticides

职业：新兴 RNA 干扰农药的非生物降解

• 批准号: 2046602
• 负责人: Kimberly Parker
• 金额: $ 50.05万
• 依托单位: Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-05-15 至 2026-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2046602&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Abiotic; degradation; emerging; RNA

Modern agriculture employs a variety of tools to increase food production to meet the growing demands of the world’s population. This has resulted in increasing need for efficient and effective fertilizers and pesticides. Increasingly, innovations in biotechnology are being made to address these needs. However, the adoption of biotechnology leads to new challenges in ensuring the safety and sustainability of agricultural practices. The goal of this CAREER project is to assess key degradation processes that determine the environmental fate of emerging pesticides that use double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) as their active agent. This will be achieved through an integrated research program to identify specific processes that degrade dsRNA pesticides in the environment. Successful completion of this research will enable the safe, sustainable, and effective use of dsRNA pesticides to simultaneously support U.S. agricultural practices and minimize potential environmental impacts. Educational activities integrated with this research plan will train environmental engineers to address emerging challenges that arise from the rapid and ongoing development of synthetic biotechnology products for use in agriculture and other sectors. Societal benefits will result from an increased STEM workforce and greater scientific literacy.The goal of this CAREER project is to elucidate the abiotic degradation pathways for dsRNA pesticides in soils, in surface water, and on leaf surfaces. This goal will be achieved by (1) elucidating underlying abiotic mechanisms of hydrolysis, denaturation, depurination, and photodegradation that occur under environmentally relevant conditions; (2) developing and applying novel product-oriented methods to distinguish dsRNA degradation by specific mechanisms in complex environmental media; and (3) determining the impact of molecular features and formulations of dsRNA pesticides on their degradation. By defining processes that control the degradation of dsRNA pesticides, this project advances fundamental knowledge on the environmental fate and persistence of nucleic acids, including microbial genetic markers. These research activities are integrated with an education program promoting the application of environmental engineering principles to the risk assessment of dsRNA pesticides and other biotechnology products. The specific objectives of the education program are (1) to train Environmental Engineering students to contribute to risk assessment of emerging products through research and project-based learning; (2) to promote multidisciplinary discourse on biotechnology safety through a graduate student-led seminar series; and (3) to support engagement in safe and sustainable applications of agricultural biotechnology through a scalable high school outreach program. The integrated research and educational activities proposed herein will position the environmental engineering field to address new multidisciplinary challenges arising from the rapid and ongoing development of biotechnology products.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

现代农业使用各种工具来增加粮食产量，以满足世界人口日益增长的需求。这导致对高效和有效化肥和杀虫剂的需求日益增加。生物技术领域的创新越来越多地被用来满足这些需求。然而，生物技术的采用在确保农业实践的安全性和可持续性方面带来了新的挑战。这个职业项目的目标是评估关键的降解过程，这些过程决定了使用双链RNA(DsRNA)作为其活性试剂的新兴农药的环境命运。这将通过一项综合研究计划来实现，该计划旨在确定降解环境中dsRNA杀虫剂的特定过程。这项研究的成功完成将使dsRNA杀虫剂的安全、可持续和有效使用同时支持美国的农业实践，并将潜在的环境影响降至最低。与这项研究计划相结合的教育活动将培训环境工程师，以应对因用于农业和其他部门的合成生物技术产品的快速和持续发展而出现的新挑战。这项职业计划的目标是阐明dsRNA农药在土壤、地表水和树叶表面的非生物降解途径。这一目标将通过(1)阐明在与环境相关的条件下发生的水解、变性、脱嘌呤和光降解的潜在非生物机制；(2)开发和应用新的面向产品的方法来区分复杂环境介质中特定机制的dsRNA降解；以及(3)确定dsRNA农药的分子特征和配方对其降解的影响。通过定义控制dsRNA杀虫剂降解的过程，该项目促进了关于包括微生物遗传标记在内的核酸的环境命运和持久性的基础知识。这些研究活动与促进将环境工程原理应用于dsRNA杀虫剂和其他生物技术产品的风险评估的教育方案相结合。该教育计划的具体目标是：(1)通过研究和基于项目的学习，培养环境工程专业的学生为新兴产品的风险评估做出贡献；(2)通过研究生主导的系列研讨会，促进关于生物技术安全的多学科论述；(3)通过可扩展的高中推广计划，支持参与农业生物技术的安全和可持续应用。本文建议的综合研究和教育活动将定位环境工程领域，以应对生物技术产品快速和持续发展带来的新的多学科挑战。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Binding of Dissolved Organic Matter to RNA and Protection from Nuclease-Mediated Degradation

溶解的有机物与 RNA 的结合以及防止核酸酶介导的降解

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c05019
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Environmental Science & Technology
• 影响因子: 11.4
• 作者: Chatterjee, Anamika;Zhang, Ke;Parker, Kimberly M.
• 通讯作者: Parker, Kimberly M.

Herbicide Drift from Genetically Engineered Herbicide-Tolerant Crops

基因工程耐除草剂作物中的除草剂漂移

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c01906
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Environmental Science & Technology
• 影响因子: 11.4
• 作者: Sharkey, Stephen M.;Williams, Brent J.;Parker, Kimberly M.
• 通讯作者: Parker, Kimberly M.