STTR Phase I: Novel Analysis Tools for Production of Higher Indican Yielding Plants for Bio-based Indigo

这一小型企业技术转让第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响涉及提高了作为一种与合成的人造蓝染料竞争的农作物的蓝宝石的生存能力。青黛是18世纪和19世纪全球主要的经济作物之一，占世界上消费的青蓝染料的100%。自20世纪初以来，世界上消费的近100%的蓝色染料都是由石油衍生品和危险有毒化学品合成而成的。世界各地使用几个世纪以来基本没有变化的传统手工方法生产少量植物衍生的蓝色染料，但这种供应在纯度和一致性方面变化很大，而且远不能与人工合成的蓝色染料相比具有成本竞争力。Stony Creek Colors与唐纳德·丹福斯植物科学中心合作，通过这个项目寻求通过创建一种高通量手持检测设备来改善可用的青黛种植库存，该设备能够快速测量植物叶片中自然存在的青黛的化学前体。在这一过程中，该团队还将通过对特定高产植物品种的DNA分析，提高对现有青黛种植种群的遗传学的理解。这一阶段研究项目的技术目标是开发新的工具，包括基因组和表型，用于分析青黛作物Persicaria tincVictoria，以生产一种从可再生的、丰富的植物材料中提取的改进的生物基特种化学物质。STTR项目将绘制现有遗传资源的地图，同时开发一种独特的方法进行植物印度胶(靛蓝前体)分析，这将使对育种品系中的植物叶片进行非破坏性分析成为可能。最后，将构建高产和低产籼胶亲本之间的遗传图谱群体，以供分析和实验室验证。与这些目标相关的第一阶段任务的成功完成，将证明选择和保持青霉高产菌株的可行性。这些改进将通过更高产量的蓝宝石育种种子实现商业化，并将在6年内推广到美国东南部超过26,000英亩的农田，从而生产出更可靠、更具成本竞争力的从美国种植的植物材料中提取的生物基蓝染料。这将使植物提取的靛蓝在成本上比合成的靛蓝染料更具竞争力，并满足牛仔布厂对美国生物基蓝的直接市场需求。

The broader impacts of this Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project relate to the increased viability of indigo as an agricultural crop competing with synthetically manufactured indigo dye. Indigo was among the major global cash crops of the 18th and 19th centuries and accounted for 100% of the indigo dye consumed in the world. Since the beginning of the 20th century, nearly 100% of the indigo dye consumed in the world has been synthetically manufactured from petroleum derivatives and hazardous and toxic chemicals. A small amount of plant-derived indigo dye is produced throughout the world using traditional artisan methods largely unchanged for centuries, but this supply is highly variable in purity and consistency and is far from cost competitive with synthetically manufactured indigo dye. Stony Creek Colors in cooperation with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center seeks through this project to improve the available indigo planting stock by creating a high-throughput handheld assay device capable of rapid measurements of the chemical precursors for indigo which exist naturally in the plant leaves. During this process the team will also improve the understanding of the genetics of the existing indigo planting stock through DNA analysis of specific high-yielding plant varieties.The technical objectives in this Phase I research project are to develop new tools, both genomic and phenomic, for analyzing the indigo crop Persicaria tinctoria, to produce an improved bio-based specialty chemical derived from renewable, abundant plant-material. The STTR project will map existing genetic resources while developing a unique approach for plant indican (indigo precursor) analysis which will enable non-destructive analysis of plant leaves in breeding lines. Finally, a genetic mapping population between high and low indican-producing parent plants will be constructed for analysis and laboratory validation. Successful completion of the Phase I tasks tied to these objectives will prove the feasibility of selecting and maintaining high indigotin yielding strains of P. tinctoria. These improvements will be commercialized through higher indigotin yielding breeders seed stock and will be spread to over 26,000 acres of cropland in the Southeast US within 6 years, resulting in a more reliable and cost-competitive bio-based indigo dye extracted from U.S. grown plant material. This will allow plant-derived indigo to be more cost-competitive with synthetic indigo dye and to meet the immediate market demand for U.S. bio-based indigo by denim mills.