Studying herbicide modes of action and detoxification using Marchantia polymorpha

世界范围内的作物产量受到杂草的威胁，杂草与作物争夺资源，如光，水和土壤养分。使用除草剂杀死杂草是防止杂草造成毁灭性作物损失的最有效方式。目前，农民依靠少量除草剂来控制杂草，但对这些除草剂的过度依赖导致了耐除草剂杂草的进化，这些杂草可以在除草剂处理中存活下来。需要以不同方式杀死杂草的新除草剂来根除这些抗性杂草并防止它们蔓延。新除草剂的一个潜在来源是由生物体自然产生的产品，这些生物体为了自身的利益而杀死植物。例如，thaxtomin A是一种杀死植物的天然产物，由以马铃薯植物为食的细菌产生。我们不知道thaxtomin A是如何工作的，但我们知道它可以杀死植物，因此可以作为设计新除草剂的基础。该项目旨在确定thaxtomin A如何使用陆地植物地钱杀死植物。了解thaxtomin A的工作原理可以用来设计新的除草剂，这些除草剂以相同的方式工作，但生产成本更低，在环境中使用更安全。然而，发现新的除草剂并不能完全解决除草剂抗性杂草的问题：有些杂草甚至对新的除草剂有抗性，因为它们可以通过一种称为解毒的过程将不同类型的除草剂分解为无害的产品。本项目的目的还在于了解在M中thaxtomin A解毒的遗传基础。为了能够检测出能够在田间对除草剂解毒的杂草，并更好地了解如何根除它们，我们需要对多形草进行研究。拟议的研究涉及BBSRC可持续提高农业生产的优先事项以及全球粮食安全的跨理事会优先事项。

Crop yields worldwide are threatened by weeds which compete with crops for resources such as light, water, and soil nutrients. Using herbicides to kill weeds is the most effective manner of preventing weeds from causing devastating crop losses. Currently, farmers rely on a small number of herbicides to keep weeds in check, but overreliance on these herbicides has led to the evolution of herbicide resistant weeds which can survive herbicide treatments. New herbicides which kill weeds in different ways are needed to eradicate these resistant weeds and prevent them from spreading. One potential source of new herbicides are products produced naturally by organisms which kill plants for their own benefit. For example, thaxtomin A is a natural product which kills plants and is produced by bacteria which feed on potato plants. We do not know how thaxtomin A works, but we know it can kill plants and therefore could be used as a basis to design new herbicides. This project aims to determine how thaxtomin A kills plants using the land plant Marchantia polymorpha. Knowledge of how thaxtomin A works can be used to design new herbicides which work in the same way but which are cheaper to produce and safer to use in the environment than thaxtomin A. However, finding new herbicides will not completely solve the problem of herbicide resistant weeds: some weeds are resistant even to new herbicides because they can break down different types of herbicides to harmless products by a process known as detoxification. This project also aims to understand the genetic basis of thaxtomin A detoxification in M. polymorpha in order to be able to detect weeds which can detoxify herbicides in the field and to better understand how to eradicate them. The proposed research addresses the BBSRC priority of sustainably enhancing agricultural production as well as the cross-council priority of global food security.