SBIR Phase II: Targeted Production of Spider Silk Fibroins in Plant Trichomes

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目建议开发一个在植物毛状体中生产蜘蛛丝蛋白的平台。合成蜘蛛丝作为一种环保生物材料具有巨大的潜力，因为它非常柔韧，但抗拉强度高于钢。目前迫切需要一种可扩展的策略，在可再生的异种系统中生产蜘蛛丝素，以实现高效的收获和回收。该平台是烟草植物中蛋白质生产和纯化的天然机制。这项技术创新是在被称为腺分泌毛状体的叶片表面结构的腺体细胞内靶向表达蜘蛛丝蛋白。研究目标将是优化蜘蛛丝蛋白的生产，并从收获的蛋白质中产生纤维。目标是使用专利启动子驱动毛状体中不同蛛丝丝素蛋白的表达，并改进丝素蛋白回收的方法，从而可以生成和测试具有不同物理特性的纤维。这项工作将进一步证明，蜘蛛丝蛋白可以以一种经济有效的方式由植物毛状体生产，并将允许大规模的光合作用生产下一代生物材料。建议的活动有何更广泛的影响？如果成功，这个项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是证明各种合成蜘蛛丝蛋白可以在植物系统中生产，并更好地理解称为腺分泌毛状体的专门植物结构的生物合成硬件。这项工作将允许开发新的方法来实现工业生物材料的生产，而不使用有毒化学品，因此将通过减少在工业过程中使用大量有害化合物的必要性而产生巨大的社会影响。该项目的商业影响将为环境友好型生物材料的光合作用生产提供平台。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project proposes to develop a platform for the production of spider silk fibroins in plant trichomes. Synthetic spider silk has great potential as an environmentally-friendly biomaterial because it is very flexible yet has a tensile strength greater than steel. A great need exists for a scalable strategy for spider silk fibroin production in a renewable heterologous system that will allow efficient harvest and recovery. The platform is a natural mechanism for protein production and purification in the plant Nicotiana tabacum. The technological innovation is the targeted expression of spider silk fibroins within the gland cells of leaf surface structures called glandular secreting trichomes. The research objectives will be to optimize the production of spider silk fibroins and generate fibers from harvested proteins. The goal is to drive the expression of different spider silk fibroins in trichomes using patented promoters, and refine methods of fibroin recovery, so that fibers with differing physical properties can be generated and tested. This work will demonstrate further that spider silk fibroins can be produced by plant trichomes in a cost-effective manner, and will allow the large-scale, photosynthetic production of next-generation biomaterials.What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?The broader impact/commercial potential of this project, if successful, will be to demonstrate that a variety of synthetic spider silk fibroins can be produced in a plant-based system, and to better understanding the biosynthetic hardware of the specialized plant structures called glandular secreting trichomes. This work will allow the development of novel ways of achieving industrial biomaterial production without the use of toxic chemicals, and will thus have great societal impact by decreasing the necessity of utilizing large amounts of hazardous compounds in industrial processes. The commercial impact of this project will implement a platform for the photosynthetic production of environmentally-friendly biomaterials.