BBSRC-NSF/BIO: Engineering an algal pyrenoid into higher plants to enhance yields

预计到2050年，全球粮食需求将翻一番。为了满足这一需求，同时最大限度地减少生态破坏，需要新的农业解决方案，允许在相同数量的土地上生产更多的食物。提高水稻和小麦等主要全球作物产量的一个主要机会在于提高它们通过光合作用吸收二氧化碳的能力，并从中产生糖。在这里，作为提高作物生产力的关键一步，我们提出了提高CO2吸收的模式植物拟南芥的工程与最小的合成CO2吸收机制与组件的蛋白核从绿色藻类。类核蛋白增强地球上几乎所有真核藻类的CO2固定，并在全球碳循环中发挥关键作用。该项目包括三个目标，每个目标都针对将蛋白核的关键成分之一工程化到拟南芥中，以及一个计算目标，该目标将开发蛋白核功能的定量模型以支持其他三个目标。这四个目标将协同作用，产生一个最小的，功能性的蛋白核在拟南芥。为了支持我们的植物工程工作，我们将在藻类和体外进行有针对性的研究。该项目得益于一个优秀的国际团队，该团队在推进我们对蛋白核的基础知识和我们将藻类成分工程化到高等植物中的能力方面有着良好的合作记录。该合作最近对蛋白核结构和生物发生的基本原理产生了关键的见解，并在高等植物中表达藻类成分方面取得了重大的初步进展。该项目将使用基于合成生物学的方法来帮助我们对具有生态和生物地球化学重要性的藻类机制进行基本了解，并将提高我们使用先进工程策略改善植物生长的能力。如果我们成功地提高了拟南芥对CO2的吸收，我们的工作将为全球作物产量的显著增加奠定基础，并将有助于以最小的生态影响满足2050年全球粮食需求。

Global food demand is projected to double by 2050. To meet this demand while minimizing ecological damage, new agricultural solutions are needed that allow production of significantly more food from the same amount of land. A major opportunity for enhancing the yields of major global crops such as rice and wheat lies in enhancing their ability to take up CO2 by photosynthesis, from which they make sugar. Here, as a key step towards enhancing crop productivity, we propose to enhance CO2 uptake of the model plant Arabidopsis by engineering it with a minimal synthetic CO2 uptake mechanism with components of the pyrenoid from green algae. Pyrenoids enhance CO2 fixation in nearly all eukaryotic algae on the planet and play a key role in the global carbon cycle. The project consists of three aims that are each targeted at engineering one of the key components of the pyrenoid into Arabidopsis, and one computational aim that will develop a quantitative model of pyrenoid function to support the other three aims. These four aims will synergize to produce a minimal, functional pyrenoid in Arabidopsis. To support our plant engineering efforts, we will perform targeted research in algae and in vitro. The project benefits from an outstanding international team with a strong track record of collaboration in advancing both our basic knowledge of the pyrenoid and our ability to engineer algal components into higher plants. The collaboration has recently yielded key insights into the principles underlying pyrenoid structure and biogenesis, and has made significant preliminary advances in expressing algal components in higher plants. The project will use synthetic biology-based approaches to contribute to our basic understanding of an algal mechanism that is of ecological and biogeochemical importance, and will advance our ability to improve plant growth using advanced engineering strategies. If we succeed in enhancing CO2 uptake in Arabidopsis, our work will lay the foundations for significant increases in global crop yields, and will contribute to meeting the 2050 global food demand with minimal ecological impacts.