Development of next-generation gene editing technologies for plant health and disease resistance

就产量而言，香蕉是全球第四大作物，2019年香蕉产量为1.15亿吨(粮农组织，2021年)。大多数香蕉种植是由小规模农民进行的，仅在非洲就为7000多万人提供了重要的收入和就业来源(IISD，2020)。然而，全球香蕉生产越来越受到黑斑病(BSD)快速传播的威胁，黑斑病也被称为黑叶条纹病。BSD会导致叶片坏死，并可能导致当地作物产量大幅下降，对小农的生计造成灾难性影响。BSD已经导致全球香蕉年产量平均减少3%，相当于每年损失约11亿GB(Strobl和Mohan，2020)。由于栽培的香蕉是三倍体和不育的，无法通过传统育种培育出抗BSD的新品种。相反，农民依赖于通过在整个生长季节应用频繁的(每周)杀菌剂处理来管理BSD(Bellaire等人，2010年)。由于杀菌剂处理成本高达1,000 GB/公顷，这对于大型种植园来说是极其昂贵的，对于小规模农民来说则高得令人望而却步(Onyilo等人，2018年)。杀菌剂的应用也推动了病原菌抵抗力的提高。在全球范围内，BSD管理已占香蕉生产成本的27%，同时也推高了全球香蕉价格(Yonow等人，2019年)。气候变化(香蕉种植区的降雨量和气温增加)预计将进一步增加BSD的传播(Bebber，2019)。热带生物科学正在开发高性能的热带作物商业品种，包括香蕉、咖啡和水稻，这些品种提高了种植效率，增强了消费者的健康，并改善了可持续的环境实践。我们的方法依赖于专利、正在申请专利的尖端基因编辑(GE)技术，这些技术是由我们自己开发的。在Innovate UK的支持下，我们将把我们世界领先的GE技术与由麻省理工学院和哈佛大学共同开发的新型突破性GE技术结合起来。为了展示我们新的改变游戏规则的生物技术的潜力，我们将开发抗BSD的香蕉植物，并达到实验室验证阶段。该项目的成果有可能在支持英国成为生物技术/农业技术世界领先者的雄心方面发挥关键作用，与ISCF转变粮食生产和实现五个联合国可持续发展目标密切一致：1(无贫困)、2(零饥饿)、5(性别平等)、12(负责任的消费和生产)和15(陆地生活)。

By production volume, bananas are the fourth most important global crop, with 115 million tonnes of banana produced in 2019 (FAO, 2021). Most banana cultivation is performed by small-scale farmers, providing a vital source of income and employment to over 70 million people in Africa alone (IISD, 2020). However, global banana production is increasingly threatened by the rapid spread of Black Sigatoka Disease (BSD), also known as black leaf streak. BSD causes leaf necrosis and can decimate local crop yields, with a catastrophic impact on smallholder livelihoods. BSD is already responsible for reducing global annual banana production by an average of 3%, equivalent to an annual loss of around £1.1billion (Strobl and Mohan, 2020).Since cultivated bananas are triploid and sterile, new BSD-resistant varieties cannot be produced through conventional breeding. Instead, farmers are reliant on managing BSD through frequent (weekly) fungicide treatments applied throughout the growing season (Bellaire et al., 2010). With a fungicide treatment cost of up to £1,000/ha, this is extremely expensive for large plantations and prohibitively expensive for small-scale farmers (Onyilo et al., 2018). Fungicide application is also driving increased pathogen resistance. Globally, BSD management already accounts for 27% of banana production costs, concurrently increasing the global banana price (Yonow et al., 2019). Climate change (increasing rainfall and temperatures in banana-growing regions) is predicted to further increase the spread of BSD (Bebber, 2019).Tropic Biosciences is developing high-performing commercial varieties of tropical crops including banana, coffee, and rice, which promote cultivation efficiencies, enhance consumer health, and improve sustainable environmental practices. Our approach relies on proprietary, patent-pending cutting-edge gene editing (GE) technologies, developed in house. With Innovate UK support, we will combine our world-leading GE technologies with a novel breakthrough GE technology, developed by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. As a demonstration of the potential of our new game-changing biotechnology, we will develop BSD-resistant banana plants, reaching laboratory validation stage.This project's outputs have the potential to play a key role in supporting the UK's ambition to become a world leader in Bio-/Agri-Tech, in close alignment with the goals of the ISCF Transforming Food Production and addressing five UN Sustainable Development Goals: 1 (No Poverty), 2 (Zero Hunger), 5 (Gender equality), 12 (Responsible consumption and production), and 15 (Life on land).