Coordination Funds

2100年110亿人的粮食安全和健康食品是本世纪的主要挑战之一。根据科学文献，除了提高全球产量效率和缩小产量差距以保证全球粮食安全之外，没有其他选择--因为进一步增加农业用地不是一个可接受的替代方案。为了实现这些农业目标，需要对植物疾病/免疫机制有新的了解，并在作物保护方面有新的技术发现。因此，这一倡议的主要目标是创建一个充满活力、充满活力和国际领先的合作联盟，共同目标是在植物宿主及其相互作用的微生物之间发展对跨王国(Ck)RNAi的机械理解。我们的中心假设是，sRNAs(RNA效应器)在病原植物-微生物相互作用的建立和发展中具有进化上保守的关键作用，因此在作物改良和更可持续的生产中具有很高的潜力。我们倡议的总体战略目标是：i.阐明CKRNAi在宿主-微生物相互作用中的原理和成分；ii.为作物植物保护和产量制定新的战略；以及建立RNA生物学的研究能力，同时培养这一重要研究领域的下一代学生。我们的具体科学目标是：1.比较揭示sRNAs在ck RNAi中的机制作用及其在各种农艺相关的植物-微生物相互作用中的传递途径；2.在这些相互作用中，比较评估在植物和微生物之间的路线上跨王国转移RNA所需的分子因素；以及制定策略，改进sRNA和dsRNA在控制植物病害中的使用。

Food security and healthy food for 11 billion people in 2100 is one of the major challenges of this century. According to the scientific literature, there is no other option than to increase the global yield efficiency and reduce the yield gap to guarantee global food security – given that further land increase for agriculture is not an acceptable alternative. To realize these agricultural goals new understanding in the mechanisms of plant diseases/immunity and new technology discoveries in crop protection are required. Hence, it is the major aim of this initiative to create a vibrant, dynamic and internationally leading collaborative consortium with the common goal of developing a mechanistic understanding of cross-kingdom (ck)RNAi between plant hosts and their interacting microbes. Our central hypothesis is that sRNAs (RNA effectors) have an evolutionarily conserved key role in the establishment and development of pathogenic and mutualistic plant-microbe interactions, and therefore have a high potential for crop plant improvement and more sustainable production. The overall strategic objectives of our initiative are: i. to elucidate the principles and components of ckRNAi in host-microbe interactions; ii. to enable the development of novel strategies for crop plant protection and yield; and iii. to build research capacity in RNA biology together with training the next generation of students in this important research area. Our specific scientific aims are: i. to comparatively reveal the mechanistic role of sRNAs in ckRNAi and their delivery pathways in a variety of agronomically relevant plant-microbe interactions; ii. to comparatively assess the molecular factors required for cross-kingdom transfer of RNAs along the routes between the plant and the microbe in these interactions; and iii. to develop strategies for improving the use of sRNA and dsRNA in controlling plant diseases.