13 ERA-CAPS Plant Endoplasmic Reticulum Architecture and Seed Productivity

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

The plant endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the cellular organelle that regulates the flux of proteins and lipids into the secretory pathway, and is responsible for storing large amount of proteins for human and animal nutrition. The ER has a unique and dynamic architecture, which changes to allow for different biosynthetic functions. Building on our collaborative work over the last 5 years, our team combines expertise in plant molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, microscopy and cereal genetics to bring understanding of ER structure/function relationships to the next level.
We aim at understanding the key molecular determinants of ER shape by studying their function, regulation and interactions. We also propose to investigate interorganellar cooperation by analysing putative contact points between ER and plasma membrane and ER and protein storage vacuoles. We will manipulate the key ER morphogens and assess how changes in ER shape affect protein and lipid biosynthesis and storage. This work will be perfomed in model plants and, importantly, in seeds of cereals (barley, wheat and maize) in order to test directly the ER structure/function relationships in these crop models.

This research combines both basic and translational elements. The importance of the plant secretory pathway in economic terms cannot be understated. A great proportion of the food consumed on the planet in terms of proteins and carbohydrates is manufactured and processed in the organelles of the secretory pathway. Likewise the pathway is responsible for the production of much of the plant extracellular matrix (wall) material which is important in numerous industries (wood, paper etc) and more recently in biofuel production (both in terms of oils and carbohydrates for fermentation). Therefore, any research underpinning our knowledge of the function of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) has great potential benefit to the development of strategies to manipulate or increase protein productivity in plants. Also the ER is the site of synthesis of many of the economically important molecules that are in development, through plant expression, by the biotechnology sector. Antibodies, peptide antigens and protein based therapeutics being good examples.
Short-to medium term beneficiaries will be applied plant biologists, in particular cereal biologists/breeders. In the long term beneficiaries of this work will include the agricultural sector, through enhanced food production, the biotechnology and health sector through the production of economically valuable molecules and the biofuels sector through oil production in the ER. It is worth noting that Frigerio, Hawes and Stöger have already collaborated in successful projects, such as the EU funded PharmaPlanta programme, on the production of antibodies within the plant ER.
All partner institutions have active technology transfer offices. Therefore, in the event of any exploitable intellectual property emerging from the projects we are well placed for exploitation.