Single-Nuclei Sequencing Whole Aquatic Plants to Reveal Novel Nutrient Transport Mechanisms

对整个水生植物进行单核测序，揭示新的养分运输机制

• 批准号: BB/Z514809/1
• 负责人: Alexander Ware
• 金额: $ 53.45万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 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%2FZ514809%2F1
• 关键词: Single; Nuclei; Sequencing; Whole; Aquatic

Aim - Controlled environment farming will be critical for future food security. This proposal aims to the biology of tiny, simplified aquatic plants to power advances in this sector.Context - Controlled environment agriculture has the potential to maintain food production in the face of increasingly extreme climactic conditions, topsoil degradation, and water scarcity. However, it requires optimisation for sustainability. Plants are often grown in these contexts without soil. Instead, essential elements they need are provided hydroponically, i.e., in a water-based solution. Nutrients in these solutions are often finite, energetically costly, and therefore unsustainable. Improving the nutrient uptake efficiency for plants grown in hydroponics is vital to realising sustainable controlled environment agriculture. The adaptations aquatic plants have made to their nutrient uptake biology represent a unique, untapped source of novel genetics for this.Duckweeds as a solution - The best aquatic plants for achieving the above are duckweeds. They are small, fast-growing, and are experiencing a current resurgence in scientific and industrial interest. 100 million years of evolution have optimised their capacity to take up nutrients from water directly into their shoot. This differs radically from most crop plants, which acquire nutrients from the soil through their roots. A better understanding of this biology will open new avenues to increased efficiency in controlled environment farming. It will also assist duckweed's adoption as a crop for these contexts, an area of growing investment motivated by their rapid growth rate and protein content comparable to soy.Experimental strategy and science - Duckweeds are ideal for understanding aquatic plant nutrient use thanks to their rapidly growing scientific resources, such as genome sequences and genetic manipulation protocols. The project will capitalise on these to achieve the following:Investigate the expression of nutrient transporters in different duckweed cell types using advanced genetic sequencing techniques. Use the data generated to identify nutrient transporters allowing duckweeds to efficiently take up nutrients from water. Use gene editing technology to verify the function of these nutrient transporters and genetic modification approaches to evaluate their impact on nutrient uptake and plant growth. Together, this will reveal how duckweeds have developed their atypical nutrient uptake abilities and explore whether these can be mimicked in non-aquatic plants.Benefits and stakeholders - improved understanding of nutrient uptake in duckweeds has the potential to:Inform the development of new crop varieties optimised for hydroponic farming. This can enhance crop nutrient use efficiency and yield, contributing to food security.Assist in their deployment as a novel crop species, for which multiple commercial and academic parties are now exploring the potential.Fundamentally advance our understanding of nutrient uptake and adaptation to the aquatic environment. To maximise the impact, I will work closely with the Australia-led international Plants for Space consortium (see LoS and in-kind support) which aims to support NASA's Artemis project and use the advances made to design ultra-modern cropping systems for use on Earth.

目标 - 受控环境农业对于未来的粮食安全至关重要。该提案旨在研究微小、简化的水生植物的生物学特性，以推动该领域的进步。 背景 - 面对日益极端的气候条件、表土退化和水资源短缺，受控环境农业有可能维持粮食生产。然而，它需要针对可持续性进行优化。植物通常在没有土壤的情况下生长。相反，他们所需的基本元素是通过水培法（即水基溶液）提供的。这些解决方案中的养分通常是有限的，能源成本高昂，因此不可持续。提高水培植物的养分吸收效率对于实现可持续的受控环境农业至关重要。水生植物对其营养吸收生物学的适应代表了一种独特的、尚未开发的新型遗传学来源。浮萍作为解决方案——实现上述目标的最佳水生植物是浮萍。它们规模小、增长快，并且正在经历当前科学和工业兴趣的复苏。一亿年的进化已经优化了它们从水中直接吸收营养到芽中的能力。这与大多数农作物截然不同，大多数农作物通过根部从土壤中获取养分。更好地了解这种生物学将为提高受控环境农业的效率开辟新途径。它还将有助于浮萍作为这些环境下的作物，由于其快速生长速度和与大豆相当的蛋白质含量，这一领域的投资不断增长。实验策略和科学——浮萍凭借其快速增长的科学资源（例如基因组序列和基因操作协议），是了解水生植物养分利用的理想选择。该项目将利用这些来实现以下目标：使用先进的基因测序技术研究不同浮萍细胞类型中营养转运蛋白的表达。使用生成的数据来识别养分转运蛋白，使浮萍能够有效地从水中吸收养分。使用基因编辑技术来验证这些养分转运蛋白的功能，并使用基因改造方法来评估它们对养分吸收和植物生长的影响。总之，这将揭示浮萍如何发展其非典型的养分吸收能力，并探索这些能力是否可以在非水生植物中模仿。利益和利益相关者 - 提高对浮萍养分吸收的了解有潜力：为水培农业优化的新作物品种的开发提供信息。这可以提高作物养分利用效率和产量，为粮食安全做出贡献。协助将其部署为新作物品种，多个商业和学术团体正在探索其潜力。从根本上增进我们对养分吸收和对水生环境适应的理解。为了最大限度地发挥影响力，我将与澳大利亚领导的国际太空植物联盟（参见 LoS 和实物支持）密切合作，该联盟旨在支持 NASA 的阿耳忒弥斯项目，并利用所取得的进步来设计用于地球的超现代种植系统。