ALMOND: Agriculture Living Machine of Operational Nano Droplets

ALMOND：可操作纳米液滴的农业生命机器

• 批准号: BB/Y008537/1
• 负责人: Oliver Castell
• 金额: $ 208.5万
• 依托单位: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FY008537%2F1
• 关键词: ALMOND; Agriculture; Living; Machine; Operational

Industrialisation of the agricultural sector has been essential for feeding the growing global population, but has resulted in increased chemical burden on ecosystems with the use of chemical pesticides and insecticides to protect crop growth.The global seed treatment market size was valued at $13.4B in 2022 and is expected to grow ~10 % annually until 2030. US farmers annually spend >$575 million on fungicides to provide a commercial crop gain of c.$13 billion. This reflects the huge role of agrichemicals in current usage to maintain global food supplies.The ecological impacts of chemical pesticides and insecticides, including environmental persistence, ecosystem toxicity, water contamination, foodchain accumulation and emerging resistance, have become increasingly apparent and have seen a move away from their use. However, alternative solutions are not without challenge. There is increasing interest in harnessing naturally occurring microorganisms (biopesticides) in or on soil or within seed-coatings to help protect crops, and this approach has seen much success with species such as Bacillus thuringiensis and Lysinbacillus sphaericus, and insect-active fungi and viruses. However, a number of highly promising specific pesticide and insecticides biocactive molecules made by micro-organisms that can protect crops are difficult to harness in practice due to potential concerns about the micro-organisms being able to cause infection in people or animals, until proven safe. Similarly, the active compounds themselves are often unstable or difficult to purify, so these are challenging to use alone. We have identified novel bioactive polyyne, cepacin in Burkholderia bacteria and discovered its biosynthetic pathway. Cepacin has fungicidal activity that protects germinating crops against damping off disease, as such these specialised metabolites represent promising novel bioactives.In this project we will use cutting edge 3D-printed microfluidics to produce non-reproducing, environmentally benign artificial cells - artificial engineered materials inspired by biology based on the cell membrane. These artificial cells contain networked compartments, separated by lipid bilayers, much like biological cells, and can serve as biochemical microfactories to synthesis these promising pesticide and insecticide biochemicals locally, to enhance crop health. By formulating these artificial cells as crop seed coatings in biodegradable hydrogel shells, the protective effects are localised exactly where needed. The artificial cells will be programmed to respond to genetic cues when the seed germinates, to activate pesticide protection. In this way the artificial cells can respond in different ways in different circumstances of plant health, disease or in the presence of different insect predators.Importantly these systems afford flexibility and a combinatorial ability to assemble pathways and toxins not normally found together, without creating transgenic organisms that that could prove challenging to license. In this way, we can use different active biomolecules in combination in a single synergistic formulation and also combine with existing biopesticides for enhanced function, that includes nitrogen fixation for enhanced crop growth and soil health and carbon capture and conversion to energy to power the artificial cell metabolism .

农业部门的工业化对于养活不断增长的全球人口至关重要，但由于使用化学农药和杀虫剂来保护作物生长，导致生态系统的化学负担增加。2022 年全球种子处理市场规模估值为 $13.4B，预计到 2030 年每年增长约 10%。美国农民每年在杀菌剂上花费超过 5.75 亿美元，为商业作物带来约 130 亿美元的收益。这反映出农用化学品在当前维持全球粮食供应的使用中发挥着巨大作用。化学农药和杀虫剂的生态影响，包括环境持久性、生态系统毒性、水污染、食物链积累和新出现的耐药性，已经变得越来越明显，并且已经不再使用它们。然而，替代解决方案并非没有挑战。人们越来越关注利用土壤中或土壤上或种衣内天然存在的微生物（生物农药）来帮助保护作物，并且这种方法在苏云金芽孢杆菌和球形赖氨酸芽孢杆菌等物种以及昆虫活性真菌和病毒方面取得了巨大成功。然而，许多由微生物产生的、可以保护农作物的、极具前景的特定农药和杀虫剂生物活性分子在实践中很难利用，因为在被证明安全之前，人们可能担心微生物能够引起人或动物感染。同样，活性化合物本身通常不稳定或难以纯化，因此单独使用这些化合物具有挑战性。我们在伯克霍尔德杆菌中鉴定出了新型生物活性多炔，cepacin，并发现了其生物合成途径。 Cepacin 具有杀菌活性，可以保护发芽作物免受立枯病的侵害，因此这些特殊的代谢物代表了有前途的新型生物活性物质。在这个项目中，我们将使用尖端的 3D 打印微流体技术来生产非再生、环境友好的人造细胞 - 受生物学启发的基于细胞膜的人工工程材料。这些人造细胞包含由脂质双层分隔的网状隔室，与生物细胞非常相似，并且可以作为生化微工厂在本地合成这些有前途的农药和杀虫剂生化物质，以增强作物健康。通过将这些人造细胞配制为可生物降解的水凝胶壳中的农作物种子涂层，保护作用可以精确地定位在需要的地方。人造细胞将被编程为在种子发芽时对遗传信号做出反应，从而激活农药保护。通过这种方式，人造细胞可以在不同的植物健康、疾病或不同昆虫捕食者存在的情况下以不同的方式做出反应。重要的是，这些系统提供了灵活性和组合能力，可以组装通常不在一起发现的途径和毒素，而不会产生可能难以获得许可的转基因生物体。通过这种方式，我们可以在单一协同制剂中组合使用不同的活性生物分子，并与现有的生物农药结合以增强功能，包括固氮以增强作物生长和土壤健康，以及碳捕获和转化为能量以驱动人工细胞新陈代谢。