Single-Nuclei Sequencing Whole Aquatic Plants to Reveal Novel Nutrient Transport Mechanisms
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Nottingham
Department Name: Sch of Biosciences
Abstract
Aim - Controlled environment farming will be critical for future food security. This proposal aims to the biology of tiny, simplified aquatic plants to power advances in this sector.
Context - Controlled environment agriculture has the potential to maintain food production in the face of increasingly extreme climactic conditions, topsoil degradation, and water scarcity. However, it requires optimisation for sustainability. Plants are often grown in these contexts without soil. Instead, essential elements they need are provided hydroponically, i.e., in a water-based solution. Nutrients in these solutions are often finite, energetically costly, and therefore unsustainable. Improving the nutrient uptake efficiency for plants grown in hydroponics is vital to realising sustainable controlled environment agriculture. The adaptations aquatic plants have made to their nutrient uptake biology represent a unique, untapped source of novel genetics for this.
Duckweeds as a solution - The best aquatic plants for achieving the above are duckweeds. They are small, fast-growing, and are experiencing a current resurgence in scientific and industrial interest. 100 million years of evolution have optimised their capacity to take up nutrients from water directly into their shoot. This differs radically from most crop plants, which acquire nutrients from the soil through their roots. A better understanding of this biology will open new avenues to increased efficiency in controlled environment farming. It will also assist duckweed's adoption as a crop for these contexts, an area of growing investment motivated by their rapid growth rate and protein content comparable to soy.
Experimental strategy and science - Duckweeds are ideal for understanding aquatic plant nutrient use thanks to their rapidly growing scientific resources, such as genome sequences and genetic manipulation protocols. The project will capitalise on these to achieve the following:
Investigate the expression of nutrient transporters in different duckweed cell types using advanced genetic sequencing techniques.
Use the data generated to identify nutrient transporters allowing duckweeds to efficiently take up nutrients from water.
Use gene editing technology to verify the function of these nutrient transporters and genetic modification approaches to evaluate their impact on nutrient uptake and plant growth.
Together, this will reveal how duckweeds have developed their atypical nutrient uptake abilities and explore whether these can be mimicked in non-aquatic plants.
Benefits and stakeholders - improved understanding of nutrient uptake in duckweeds has the potential to:
Inform the development of new crop varieties optimised for hydroponic farming. This can enhance crop nutrient use efficiency and yield, contributing to food security.
Assist in their deployment as a novel crop species, for which multiple commercial and academic parties are now exploring the potential.
Fundamentally advance our understanding of nutrient uptake and adaptation to the aquatic environment.
To maximise the impact, I will work closely with the Australia-led international Plants for Space consortium (see LoS and in-kind support) which aims to support NASA's Artemis project and use the advances made to design ultra-modern cropping systems for use on Earth.
Context - Controlled environment agriculture has the potential to maintain food production in the face of increasingly extreme climactic conditions, topsoil degradation, and water scarcity. However, it requires optimisation for sustainability. Plants are often grown in these contexts without soil. Instead, essential elements they need are provided hydroponically, i.e., in a water-based solution. Nutrients in these solutions are often finite, energetically costly, and therefore unsustainable. Improving the nutrient uptake efficiency for plants grown in hydroponics is vital to realising sustainable controlled environment agriculture. The adaptations aquatic plants have made to their nutrient uptake biology represent a unique, untapped source of novel genetics for this.
Duckweeds as a solution - The best aquatic plants for achieving the above are duckweeds. They are small, fast-growing, and are experiencing a current resurgence in scientific and industrial interest. 100 million years of evolution have optimised their capacity to take up nutrients from water directly into their shoot. This differs radically from most crop plants, which acquire nutrients from the soil through their roots. A better understanding of this biology will open new avenues to increased efficiency in controlled environment farming. It will also assist duckweed's adoption as a crop for these contexts, an area of growing investment motivated by their rapid growth rate and protein content comparable to soy.
Experimental strategy and science - Duckweeds are ideal for understanding aquatic plant nutrient use thanks to their rapidly growing scientific resources, such as genome sequences and genetic manipulation protocols. The project will capitalise on these to achieve the following:
Investigate the expression of nutrient transporters in different duckweed cell types using advanced genetic sequencing techniques.
Use the data generated to identify nutrient transporters allowing duckweeds to efficiently take up nutrients from water.
Use gene editing technology to verify the function of these nutrient transporters and genetic modification approaches to evaluate their impact on nutrient uptake and plant growth.
Together, this will reveal how duckweeds have developed their atypical nutrient uptake abilities and explore whether these can be mimicked in non-aquatic plants.
Benefits and stakeholders - improved understanding of nutrient uptake in duckweeds has the potential to:
Inform the development of new crop varieties optimised for hydroponic farming. This can enhance crop nutrient use efficiency and yield, contributing to food security.
Assist in their deployment as a novel crop species, for which multiple commercial and academic parties are now exploring the potential.
Fundamentally advance our understanding of nutrient uptake and adaptation to the aquatic environment.
To maximise the impact, I will work closely with the Australia-led international Plants for Space consortium (see LoS and in-kind support) which aims to support NASA's Artemis project and use the advances made to design ultra-modern cropping systems for use on Earth.
