Exploring Mobile Endophytic Microbes in a World of Immobile Plant Cells

探索固定植物细胞世界中的移动内生微生物

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-05168
• 负责人: Raizada, Manish
• 金额: $ 3.42万
• 依托单位: University of Guelph
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=738100
• 关键词: Exploring; Mobile; Endophytic; Microbes; World

Higher organisms like humans and plants are inhabited by a huge diversity of microbes. This is a hidden world waiting to be discovered. Throughout evolution, bacteria represented an opportunity for higher organisms to rapidly acquire new traits by forming stable relationships with these simple but clever forms of life. The opportunities to explore the microbes that inhabit plants may be especially profound. Why? Plant cells cannot move, locked in by walls, which limits their ability to seek distant pathogens. By contrast, animal cells can move, and this mobility allowed for the evolution of immunity cells (e.g. white blood cells) that can search & kill. Animal immunity cells later added the ability to remember pathogens to mount a more deadly defence, which led to vaccines & transformational disease prevention. Bacteria, including those inside plants, can move however. Thus, here we ask a fundamental question with major implications for future agricultural improvement: Did plants select for mobile microbes to serve similar roles as mobile animal immunity cells to seek & destroy pathogens, even to search for nutrient/water sources and have memory of past threats? If supported, these concepts represent new textbook paradigms in our understanding of the life strategies of plants. We believe breakthroughs in these questions, particularly those most useful for protecting global food production, will come from examining the ancient crops of indigenous peoples including from the Quebec Mi'kmaq First Nations People, & the wild relatives they selected from, thousands of years ago, since such crops were bred/evolved without chemical pesticides or fertilizers and thus may be especially dependent on their microbial partners for beneficial traits. Established companies and start-ups in Canada and around the world are investing billions of dollars with the goal of coating microbes onto seeds or spraying them in the field. The hope is that such microbes will replace/reduce pesticides, fungicides, and chemical fertilizers, and mitigate drought & combat climate change. The results of this proposal may thus lead to new innovations to help Canadian farmers and the world's 2 billion indigenous peoples who rely on agriculture, while making Canada a pioneer in this emerging industry. The project will equitably recruit students to train them to become the next generation of leaders that will explore and harvest benefits from this hidden world.

人类和植物等高等生物体内栖息着种类繁多的微生物。这是一个等待被发现的隐藏世界。在整个进化过程中，细菌为高等生物提供了一个机会，通过与这些简单但聪明的生命形式形成稳定的关系来快速获得新的特征。探索栖息在植物中的微生物的机会可能特别有意义。为什么？植物细胞无法移动，被墙壁锁住，这限制了它们寻找远处病原体的能力。相比之下，动物细胞可以移动，这种移动性使得能够搜索和杀死的免疫细胞（例如白细胞）得以进化。动物免疫细胞后来增加了记住病原体的能力，以建立更致命的防御，从而导致了疫苗和转化性疾病的预防。然而，细菌，包括植物内部的细菌，可以移动。因此，在这里我们提出一个对未来农业改进具有重大影响的基本问题：植物是否选择移动微生物来发挥与移动动物免疫细胞类似的作用来寻找和消灭病原体，甚至寻找营养/水源并具有过去的记忆威胁？如果得到支持，这些概念代表了我们理解植物生命策略的新教科书范式。我们相信，这些问题的突破，特别是对保护全球粮食生产最有用的问题，将来自于对土著人民（包括魁北克米克马克原住民以及他们在数千年前选择的野生近缘种）的古老农作物的研究。 ，因为这些作物是在没有化学农药或肥料的情况下培育/进化的，因此可能特别依赖于其微生物伙伴的有益特性。加拿大和世界各地的老牌公司和初创企业正在投资数十亿美元，目标是将微生物涂在种子上或喷洒在田间。希望这些微生物能够取代/减少农药、杀菌剂和化肥，并减轻干旱和应对气候变化。因此，该提案的结果可能会带来新的创新，帮助加拿大农民和世界上 20 亿依赖农业的土著人民，同时使加拿大成为这一新兴产业的先驱。该项目将公平地招募学生，培训他们成为下一代领导者，探索这个隐秘的世界并从中获益。