I-Corps: Combinatorial phage display for the development of specific, single target biopesticides against invasive plant pathogens

I-Corps：组合噬菌体展示，用于开发针对入侵植物病原体的特异性单靶点生物农药

• 批准号: 2139617
• 负责人: Daniel Schachtman
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2139617&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Combinatorial; phage; display; development

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will be the establishment of a process to develop and rapidly create environmentally friendly biological fungicides to solve worldwide problems related to fungal plant pathogens. These pathogens can threaten agricultural crops worldwide. Bacterial and fungal pathogens are diverse and evolve natural resistance to both pesticides and resistance genes incorporated into crops by plant breeders. Because of the widespread occurrence of fungal diseases on crop plants and the negative effects of fungicides on a range of organisms, there is a need to develop more environmentally friendly approaches to controlling fungal plant pathogens. Agricultural industries worldwide have problems with fungal diseases which reduce yield, lead to the destruction of crops, and result in substantial lost revenue. This project aims to establish a platform to develop and rapidly deploy biological fungicides to reduce the impact that fungal pathogens have on agricultural crops.This I-Corps project will develop the use of combinatorial phage display for the rapid screening, development, and deployment of specific, single target biopesticides against new and invasive plant pathogens.  This innovation was demonstrated to be a powerful tool for selecting peptides with an affinity to many different types of biological materials including small molecules and whole cells. It is anticipated that using phage display will rapidly identify peptides that are effective at interfering with pathogen function. Previous work indicates that roughly 50% of peptides selected with this method bind strongly to a specific plant pathogen and have a negative impact on pathogen virulence. The project will use artificial intelligence-based computational approaches to optimize peptide design and efficacy. It is anticipated that the proposed biopesticides will not persist in the environment and will be unlikely to be toxic to humans or other organisms because of their specificity to  the targeted  pathogens.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.

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是建立一个开发和快速创建环境友好型生物杀菌剂的过程，以解决与真菌植物病原体有关的全球问题。这些病原体可以威胁全世界的农作物。细菌和真菌病原体是多种多样的，并进化出对杀虫剂和植物育种者纳入作物的抗性基因的自然抗性。由于作物真菌病的广泛发生以及杀菌剂对一系列生物的负面影响，有必要开发更环保的方法来控制真菌植物病原体。世界各地的农业都存在真菌病的问题，真菌病会降低产量，导致作物破坏，并造成大量收入损失。该项目旨在建立一个开发和快速部署生物杀菌剂的平台，以减少真菌病原体对农作物的影响。这个I-Corps项目将开发组合噬菌体展示的使用，用于快速 筛选、 开发和部署特定的 单靶点生物农药，以对抗新的和入侵的植物病原体。 这项创新 被证明是一个 强大的工具，用于选择与许多不同类型的生物材料（包括小分子和整个细胞）有亲和力的肽。预计利用噬菌体展示技术可以快速识别出干扰病原体功能的有效肽。先前的研究表明，用这种方法选择的大约50%的肽与特定的植物病原体强烈结合，并对病原体的毒力产生负面影响。该项目将使用基于人工智能的计算方法来优化肽的设计和功效。预计拟议的生物农药不会在环境中持续存在，并且由于其对 目标 病原体的特异性，不太可能对人类或其他生物体产生毒性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。