Research project
Precision medicine for agriculture: harnessing peptide-producing microbiota for sustainable crop protection
Identifying natural plant-associated bacteria that provide targeted inhibition of pathogens through the production of antimicrobial peptides.
- Duration
- 2024 - 2029
- Contact
- Somayah Elsayed
- Funding
-
NWO Knowledge and Innovation Covenant (KIC) call ‘Microbiome: healthy from soil to gut and back’
- Partners
Project aim
Microbial pathogens constitute a major threat to crop yields worldwide. Chemical pesticides are often effective but may have a negative impact on biodiversity as well as consumer health. To provide an alternative, the project aims to identify natural plant-associated bacteria that provide targeted inhibition of pathogens through the production of antimicrobial peptides.
Description
Plant diseases are a major threat to crop yields worldwide, and green solutions are urgently required to control them. Plant microbiomes represent an untapped resource of microorganisms producing natural plant-protective compounds. However, using these microbes as biologicals for microbiome enhancement is not without risk, as the metabolites produced may be harmful to beneficial microbiota and toxic to humans.
Ribosomally synthesised and posttranslationally modified peptides (RiPPs) constitute a class of microbial metabolites with high potential to circumvent these risks, as many of them have narrow-spectrum biological activities and exhibit low levels of toxicity. New artificial intelligence technologies now provide unprecedented ways to mine genomes of plant-associated bacteria for novel RiPP biosynthetic pathways.
The aim of this project is to identify RiPP-producing bacteria that are promising leads for the development of biologicals. We will systematically map RiPP biosynthetic diversity from plant microbiomes, and prioritise pathways for detailed characterization using activity-guided computational metabolomics. Promising RiPPs will be chemically characterised, and interactions of RiPP producers with both beneficial plant microbiota and phytopathogens will be profiled in vitro and in planta. To assess risks of RiPP producers inadvertently colonising the human body upon consumption, we will profile their presence across longitudinal metagenomic data from population-level cohorts. Finally, we will identify conditions required for consumer acceptance of fruits and vegetables treated with (RiPP-producing) microbes.
This fundamental knowledge will provide a basis for development of new sustainable biologicals together with industrial partners. Collectively, our research will provide new means to improve soil microbiomes to benefit plant health.
