Targeted Innovation in the UK Seed Potato Industry to Improve Productivity and Quality

“土豆是英国最大的蔬菜类别，年产量为500-600万吨。价值约11亿GB。产量相对稳定，但价格和供应不稳定，潜在问题包括天气影响以及与这些疾病相关的问题。尤其是土豆的细菌病原体，通过病害造成大量损失，导致损害和不符合市场规格。对英国和更广泛的欧洲行业尤其重要的是黑腿(主要由细菌引起)；每年造成英国5000万英镑的总损失。和全球7.5亿GB。黑腿是通过种子繁殖系统传播的，是种子降级和拒收的主要原因(估计成本为100 GB/吨)，以及更广泛行业的块茎软腐病下游损失。该项目建立在Innovate UK之前的研究基础上，在该研究中，针对黑腿病原体的新型、高度特异和安全的噬菌体(自然产生的抗菌剂)的组合已被配方。这些研究得出的结论是，该技术的主要商业价值是与高级种子行业合作，试图将种子污染降至最低，保护下游行业的马铃薯种子健康，并为种子生产商增加竞争优势，以竞争欧盟内外更大的新出口市场(尤其是在英国退欧后)。以前的工作还得出结论，黑腿防治的评估应该是一种双重的方法，既记录病株，也记录收获块茎的细菌污染，以衡量它们将疾病传播给后代的可能性。拟议项目的关键目标是跟踪连续几代高等级种子(来自干净的第一代田间储存)，在整个生长季节在种植(针对种子污染)和叶面应用(针对环境病源)上应用噬菌体处理。此外，还将进行修改和优化初始噬菌体组合的工作，以考虑到新出现的黑腿病原体。两个新的研究伙伴(詹姆斯·赫顿研究所和莱斯特大学)将进一步加强项目101907中现有的企业主导的财团，带来创新的方法来告知有关噬菌体专一性和作用模式的问题。鉴于疾病对该行业的影响，该项目提供了一个非常及时和创新的机会。到目前为止，主要申请者在利用该技术方面已经取得了重大进展，拟议的项目将进一步降低该技术的风险，使该财团能够在项目后尽可能有效地最大化商业化机会。“

"Potatoes are the UK's largest vegetable category, producing 5-6 million tonnes p.a. valued at approximately £1.1bn. Production is relatively stable but prices and supply are volatile, with underlying issues including weather effects and related to these, disease. Bacterial pathogens of potatoes in particular are responsible for substantial losses through disease, leading to damage and failure to meet market specifications. Of particular importance to the UK and wider European industry, especially for high-grade seed production is blackleg (caused mainly by _Pectobacterium_ bacteria); responsible for \>£50M UK total losses p.a. and £750M worldwide. Blackleg is transmitted through the seed-multiplication system and is a major cause of seed downgrading and rejections (at an estimated cost of £100/tonne), together with downstream losses from tuber soft rot across the wider industry sectors.This project builds on previous Innovate UK research in which combinations of novel, highly-specific and safe bacteriophage (naturally-occurring antimicrobials) have been formulated to target blackleg pathogens. These studies have concluded that the main commercial value of the technology is working with the high-grade seed industry, attempting to minimise seed contamination, safeguarding seed potato health for the industry downstream and adding a competitive advantage to the seed producers to compete for larger and new export markets, both within and outside of the EU (particularly post Brexit). Previous work also concluded that the assessment of blackleg controls should be a two-fold approach, recording both diseased plants and also, bacterial contamination of harvested tubers as a measure of their likelihood of transmitting disease to subsequent generations.Key objectives of the proposed project are to follow successive generations of high-grade seed (from clean, field-generation 1 stocks), applying bacteriophage treatments both at planting (targeting seed contamination) and foliar applications throughout the growing season (targeting environmental disease sources). Also, work will be carried out to modify and optimise the initial bacteriophage mix to take into account new, emerging blackleg pathogens. The existing business-led consortium from project 101907 will be further strengthened by two new research partners (James Hutton Institute and University of Leicester), bringing innovative approaches to inform questions of both bacteriophage specificity and mode-of-action.The project addresses a very timely and innovative opportunity given the impact of the disease on the industry. The Lead Applicant has already made significant progress in exploiting the technology to date and the proposed project would further de-risk the technology, allowing the consortium to maximise commercialisation opportunities post project as effectively as possible."