SBIR Phase II: Engineering broad-spectrum disease resistance in soybean without fitness cost

Upstream Biotechnology, Inc., Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is the development of a novel genetic trait that allows plants to rapidly respond to attacking pathogens. Despite modern agricultural practices and chemistry improvements, almost 40% of all crop production is lost due to pests and pathogens each year; within the U.S. over 25% of soybean production is lost this way. These losses are even more severe in regions where pesticide application is prohibitively expensive for farmers. This project develops a new technology for use in soybean and other oilseed crops to protect against plant disease. The proposed project will develop a broad-spectrum pathogen resistance trait. While the first generation of transgenic trait technologies conferring herbicide tolerance and insecticidal traits have been readily established for oilseed production across North and South America, further development has faltered due to the complexity of these plant traits. Unfortunately, the proteins that provide the best tolerance to adverse environmental conditions also result in toxic side-effects when produced in healthy plants; consequently, the utility of developing these proteins is limited. Current methods for regulating expression of resistance proteins introduced into plants through genetic engineering are insufficient to regulate toxic proteins/compounds that may have side-effects in other environmental conditions. The proposed project will demonstrate an expression system that responds to signals, common to both bacterial and fungal pathogens, in the early and late stages of the plant immune response to release the production of anti-microbial proteins only in when needed, effectively eliminating the off-target side-effects. The project objectives are to 1) perform field and greenhouse trial of soybean with this technology to ascertain extent of pathogen resistance and yield effects in infected and healthy conditions; 2) optimize the technology for tissue specific (i.e., roots vs. leaves) use in soybean; 3) conduct greenhouse experiments to determine response to pathogen detection in canola, cotton, and potato as candidates for future field trials and commercialization. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.