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.

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是建立一个开发和快速创造环境友好型生物杀真菌剂的过程，以解决与真菌植物病原体有关的全球性问题。 这些病原体可能威胁全球农作物。细菌和真菌病原体是多种多样的，并进化出对农药和植物育种者掺入作物的抗性基因的天然抗性。由于真菌病害在作物上的广泛发生以及杀真菌剂对一系列生物体的负面影响，需要开发更环境友好的方法来控制真菌植物病原体。 全世界的农业都存在真菌病害的问题，真菌病害降低产量，导致农作物的破坏，并导致大量的收入损失。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。该I-Corps项目将开发利用组合噬菌体展示技术快速筛选、开发和部署针对新的和入侵的植物病原体的特异性、单一靶标生物农药。 这一创新被证明是一种强大的工具，用于选择对许多不同类型的生物材料（包括小分子和全细胞）具有亲和力的肽。 预期使用噬菌体展示将快速鉴定有效干扰病原体功能的肽。以前的工作表明，用这种方法选择的肽中大约有50%与特定的植物病原体强烈结合，并对病原体毒力产生负面影响。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。预计拟议中的生物农药不会在环境中持久存在，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有毒。该奖项反映了NSF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。