Engineering a synthetic symbiosis to solve the nitrogen crisis

设计合成共生来解决氮危机

• 批准号: BB/W009986/1
• 负责人: Marcelo Bueno Batista
• 金额: $ 51.78万
• 依托单位: John Innes Centre
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FW009986%2F1
• 关键词: Engineering; synthetic; symbiosis; solve; nitrogen

The growth of the world's population is not followed by a proportionate increase in available arable land for food production. Therefore, more efficient ways to optimise food production are needed. At the same time, we must minimise the environmental impacts of modern agriculture. Finding novel and more sustainable ways to support the nitrogen requirements of economically important cereal crops is essential to guarantee global food security in the future. Although synthetic nitrogen fertilisers support extensive agriculture, their overuse is related to a series of environmental problems. Firstly, their production and distribution require large amounts of fossil fuel. Secondly, excess use of synthetic nitrogen leads to the emission of nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas 300-fold more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2).On the other hand, smallholder farmers in developing countries have limited access to nitrogen fertiliser due to its high cost. Some soil bacteria associated with plants can convert atmospheric nitrogen (N2), an inert form of nitrogen to most living organisms, to ammonia (NH3), which plants can readily assimilate. Using these bacteria to supply nitrogen to cereal crops is a viable alternative to increase food production while reducing the impact of agriculture on global warming. This project aims to understand how naturally occurring nitrogen-fixing bacteria can support the nitrogen fertilisation of crops. To do this, new insights into the mechanisms that regulate biological nitrogen fixation (the reduction of N2 to NH3 by the nitrogenase enzyme) will guide the modification and optimisation of these microorganisms. Determining how the modified bacteria interact with cereal crops to fulfil their nitrogen requirements is also fundamental to the success of this strategy. The knowledge generated in this research programme will be readily translatable into new technologies to help the establishment of more sustainable and equitable agriculture. The outcomes of this programme will also provide a better understanding of fundamental signal transduction mechanisms that may lead to new broadly applicable biological insights in microbial research.

世界人口的增长并没有伴随着用于粮食生产的可耕地的相应增加。因此，需要更有效的方法来优化粮食生产。同时，我们必须尽量减少现代农业对环境的影响。寻找新颖且更可持续的方法来支持具有重要经济意义的谷类作物的氮需求对于保障未来全球粮食安全至关重要。尽管合成氮肥支持粗放农业，但其过度使用与一系列环境问题有关。首先，它们的生产和分配需要大量化石燃料。其次，过量使用合成氮会导致一氧化二氮（N2O）的排放，这种温室气体的效力比二氧化碳（CO2）强300倍。另一方面，发展中国家的小农获得氮肥的机会有限，因为其成本高昂。一些与植物相关的土壤细菌可以将大气中的氮（N2）（对大多数生物体来说是一种惰性形式的氮）转化为氨（NH3），植物可以很容易地吸收氨。利用这些细菌向谷类作物提供氮是增加粮食产量同时减少农业对全球变暖影响的可行替代方案。该项目旨在了解天然存在的固氮细菌如何支持作物的氮肥。为此，对调节生物固氮（固氮酶将 N2 还原为 NH3）机制的新见解将指导这些微生物的修饰和优化。确定改良细菌如何与谷类作物相互作用以满足其氮需求也是该策略成功的基础。该研究计划产生的知识将很容易转化为新技术，以帮助建立更加可持续和公平的农业。该计划的成果还将提供对基本信号转导机制的更好理解，这可能会在微生物研究中带来新的广泛适用的生物学见解。

项目成果

Light sensitive short hypocotyl (LSH) confer symbiotic nodule identity in the legume Medicago truncatula

光敏短下胚轴（LSH）赋予豆科蒺藜苜蓿共生根瘤身份

• DOI: http://dx.10.1101/2023.02.12.528179
• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Schiessl K

Structural insights into redox signal transduction mechanisms in the control of nitrogen fixation by the NifLA system.

NifLA 系统控制固氮的氧化还原信号转导机制的结构见解。

• DOI: http://dx.10.1073/pnas.2302732120
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• 影响因子: 11.1
• 作者: Boyer NR

Overview of physiological, biochemical, and regulatory aspects of nitrogen fixation in Azotobacter vinelandii.

维氏固氮菌固氮的生理、生化和调控方面的概述。

• DOI: http://dx.10.1080/10409238.2023.2181309
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Critical reviews in biochemistry and molecular biology
• 影响因子: 6.5
• 作者: Martin Del Campo JS

Control of N 2 fixation and NH 3 excretion in Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS571

固氮根瘤菌 ORS571 中 N 2 固定和 NH 3 排泄的控制

• DOI: http://dx.10.1101/2022.04.13.488174
• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Haskett T

Interactions between paralogous bacterial enhancer-binding proteins enable metal-dependent regulation of alternative nitrogenases in Azotobacter vinelandii

旁系同源细菌增强子结合蛋白之间的相互作用能够对维氏固氮菌中的替代固氮酶进行金属依赖性调节

• DOI: http://dx.10.1111/mmi.14955
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Molecular Microbiology
• 影响因子: 3.6
• 作者: Appia