Reducing pesticide inputs and improving crop production under environmental stress by using seed treatments to prime plant defences.

在与粮食安全相关的讨论中，园艺、新鲜水果、蔬菜、沙拉等的生产往往被忽视，然而，随着全球中产阶级将从今天的19亿多增加到2030年的49亿多，对高价值新鲜农产品的需求也将不可避免地大幅增加。因此，园艺是利用新科学为可持续的、有利可图的作物生产提供新方法的主要部门。迫切需要注意的受保护作物生产的一个特别重要的组成部分是发展不依赖传统化学农药的病虫害控制方法。在经济、人类健康和环境方面，越来越有令人信服的理由要求为作物保护制定可持续、无毒的解决办法；特别是考虑到最近一些备受关注的报告将某些广泛使用的化学农药家族与怀孕期间接触有机磷农药的妇女所生儿童患自闭症谱系障碍的风险增加联系起来，以及新烟碱类杀虫剂对包括传粉昆虫在内的广泛非目标物种的生存产生负面影响。除此之外，大型食品零售商和消费者不断对种植者施加商业压力，要求他们减少新鲜农产品中的残留物。我们在兰开斯特的实验室采用的方法是通过开发增强植物自身自然抗逆性的方法来减少对农药的依赖。最近，MRR和JPM，拟议博士项目的学术和工业主管，是一个团队的一部分，他们证明了用茉莉酸（JA）和β -氨基丁酸（BABA）处理种子，两者都是害虫和疾病抗性的激发子，为一系列全球经济上重要的作物物种提供了持久的防御启动。这一发现获得了专利，并在巴斯夫的全球独家许可下投入商业使用。使用天然植物诱导抗性的无毒活化剂对消费者以及对生物多样性和生态系统服务提供的威胁较小，因为它们针对的是植物而不是微生物、昆虫或其他动物。重要的是，现在人们也认识到，那些负责指导对生物胁迫的诱导反应的途径也可以激活植物对一系列非生物胁迫的耐受性，包括干旱和极端高温；对于全球受保护作物生产者来说，这两者都具有重要且日益增长的商业利益。因此，这项建议的目标是双重的。该项目将主要侧重于进一步开发种子处理的使用，以启动对生物胁迫的反应。我们将测试如何将这些处理方法与现有的替代作物保护方法结合起来，并最终测试它们是否可以在作物发育期间通过进一步操纵IR途径，在不损失产量的情况下，以更低的农药施用量保持最大限度的害虫控制。其次，我们将确定那些用于提供生物抗性的处理是否也提供了对干旱和高温的耐受性。随后，我们将运用我们的新知识来设计商业作物生产中的作物保护协议。然后，学生将在与行业合作伙伴在其市场上合作进行的商业试验中测试这些协议。关键的科学成果将是产生新的、更可持续的商业作物保护方法，这将直接实现BBSRC的战略重点“可持续地提高农业生产”。兰开斯特大学和艾瑞德农业有限公司建立了长期成功的合作关系，这将为博士研究生在基础和应用方面提供优秀的互补经验和培训。

Horticulture, the production of fresh fruit, vegetables, salads etc. is often overlooked in discussions linked to food security, yet as the global middle class is set to increase from just over 1.9 bn today to over 4.9 bn by 2030 it is inevitable that demand for high-value fresh produce will also increase dramatically. Horticulture is therefore a prime sector for deploying new science to deliver new approaches to sustainable, profitable crop production. One particularly important component of protected crop production urgently requiring attention is the development of methods for control of pests and diseases that do not rely on traditional chemical pesticides. There are increasingly compelling economic, human health and environmental arguments for developing sustainable, non-toxic solutions for the crop protection; particularly in light of recent high profile reports linking certain families of widely used chemical pesticides to increased risk of autism spectrum disorders in children born to women exposed to organophosphate pesticides during pregnancy and neonicotinoid insecticides negatively impacting survival of a broad range of non-target species, including pollinators. Beyond this, there is constant commercial pressure on growers from both large food retailers and consumers to reduce residues in fresh produce. The approach taken in our lab in Lancaster is to reduce reliance on pesticides by developing methods for enhancing plants' own natural capabilities for stress tolerance. Recently, MRR and JPM, the academic and industrial supervisors for the proposed PhD project, were part of a team who demonstrated that seed treatment with jasmonic acid (JA) and beta-aminobutyric acid (BABA), both elicitors of pest and disease resistance, provides long-lasting priming of defence in a range of globally, economically important crop species. This discovery was patented and is now in commercial use under exclusive worldwide license to BASF. Using non-toxic activators of natural plant induced resistance should pose a lesser threat to both consumers and to biodiversity and ecosystem service provision, since they target the plant rather than microbes, insects or other animals. Importantly, it is also now recognized that those pathways responsible for directing induced responses to biotic stress can also act to activate plant tolerance to a range of abiotic stresses, including drought and extreme high temperatures; both of which are of significant and increasing commercial interest to global protected crop producers. The objectives of this proposal are therefore twofold. The project will primarily focus on further developing the use of seed treatments for priming of responses to biotic stresses. We will test how such treatments might be integrated alongside existing alternative crop protection methods and ultimately test whether they can be employed to maintain maximum pest control at reduced rates of pesticide application via further manipulation of IR pathways during crop development without loss of yield. Second, we will determine whether those treatments developed to deliver biotic resistance also provide useful levels of tolerance to drought and high temperatures.Subsequently, we will apply our new knowledge to design protocols for crop protection in commercial crop production. The student will then test these protocols in commercial trials conducted in collaboration with the industry partner in their markets.The key scientific outcome will be the generation of new, more sustainable approaches to commercial crop protection, which delivers directly to BBSRC's strategic priority 'Sustainably enhancing agricultural production.'The academic-industry partnership is based on a long-standing and successful relationship between Lancaster University and Arid Agritec Ltd., and will provide the PhD student with excellent complementary experience and training in plant science in both fundamental and applied contexts.