Exploiting soil microbiomes for development of natural fungicides targeting P. infestans

马铃薯晚疫病是英国农作物面临的最具破坏性的病害之一。如果不及时治疗，它可以在感染后两周内摧毁庄稼。据估计，该疾病每年造成35亿英镑的直接损失和控制成本，其中仅在欧盟和英国就有8亿英镑。在英国，管理枯萎病需要使用最多的杀菌剂，种植者平均使用10或最多20次处理来确保产量（相比之下，其他主要作物使用1-3次杀菌剂处理）。如此广泛地使用合成化学品正在造成抗药性的积累和广泛的环境破坏。由于目前所有的解决方案都面临抗性积累或监管机构被取消的风险，现在需要新的解决方案来防止抗性品种的传播，维护未来的作物安全并满足提高农业效率的要求。结合尖端合成生物学，定向进化，机器学习和生物信息学方法，我们的目标是分析10个英国马铃薯农场的土壤微生物组，并鉴定出5种新型细菌来源的杀真菌剂。5种。_针对这一全球主要病原体的新型杀菌剂的发现将为全球主要农业参与者进一步投资提供令人信服的理由。总的来说，我们的目标是为种植者提供更有效，更可持续的作物保护方案，以防止晚疫病，并保障英国马铃薯产业的未来。这一雄心与英国植物科学研究战略相一致，旨在发展更好、更绿色的土壤管理实践，并将支持农民实现英国提高生产力和减少可持续马铃薯生产农业对环境影响的雄心。

Potato late blight is one of the most damaging diseases facing England's crops. Untreated, it can devastate crops within 2 weeks of infection. Each year the disease is estimated to cause £3.5Bn in direct losses and control costs, including £800Mn in EU and UK alone.Managing blight requires the most fungicide applications of any crop in the UK, with growers using an average of 10 or up to 20 treatments to ensure yield (vs 1-3 fungicide treatments used on other major crops). Such extensive use of synthetic chemicals is resulting in resistance build-up and widespread environmental damage.With all of today's solutions either at-risk of resistance build-up or regulator removal, new solutions are needed now to prevent the spread of resistant varieties, maintain future crop security and meet demands for improving agricultural efficiencies.Using a combination of cutting-edge synthetic biology, directed evolution, machine learning and bioinformatics approaches, we aim to analyse soil microbiomes from 10 UK potato farms and identify 5 novel bacterially-derived fungicides against _P. infestans._ Discovery of new fungicides against this major global pathogen will provide a compelling case for further investment from key global agricultural players.Overall, our aim is to provide growers with more effective, more sustainable options for crop protection against late blight and to safeguard England's potato industry into the future. This ambition aligns with UK Plant Science Research Strategy to develop better, greener soil management practices and will support farmers in achieving the UK's ambitions to boost productivity and reduce the environmental impact of farming for sustainable potato production.