Application of the plastidic E3 ligase SP1 in crop improvement, using tomato and rice as models
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Plant Sciences
Abstract
The human population is growing rapidly and set to reach 9bn by 2050, and there are ever-increasing pressures on natural resources. Thus, the drivers for increased crop yields and productivity, and for resilience to climate change and sub-optimal growing conditions, are stronger than ever. To meet these demands it will be essential to develop new, improved crop varieties. Through research on the model plant Arabidopsis, we recently made a significant breakthrough that may have important implications for crop yields and food security. We discovered a gene called SP1 that controls many important aspects of plant development. More specifically, SP1 regulates the development of structures inside plant cells called chloroplasts, which are responsible for photosynthesis. By altering SP1 activity in crops, we believe that we will be able to exert control over diverse aspects of crop development, including fruit ripening, grain development, stress tolerance, leaf aging, and crop yield.
Organisations
- University of Oxford (Lead Research Organisation)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- Max Planck Society (Collaboration)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (Collaboration)
- University of Neuchâtel (Collaboration)
- University of Gothenburg (Collaboration)
- Royal Holloway, University of London (Collaboration)
- Tohoku University (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON (Collaboration)
- Plant Bioscience Limited (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
People |
ORCID iD |
Paul Jarvis (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Sowden RG
(2018)
The role of chloroplasts in plant pathology.
in Essays in biochemistry
Watson SJ
(2018)
Abiotic stress-induced chloroplast proteome remodelling: a mechanistic overview.
in Journal of experimental botany
Ling Q
(2019)
Ubiquitin-dependent chloroplast-associated protein degradation in plants.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Sadali NM
(2019)
Differentiation of chromoplasts and other plastids in plants.
in Plant cell reports
Ling Q
(2021)
The chloroplast-associated protein degradation pathway controls chromoplast development and fruit ripening in tomato
in Nature Plants
Sun Y
(2022)
Ubiquitin-based pathway acts inside chloroplasts to regulate photosynthesis.
in Science advances
Nellaepalli S
(2023)
Chloroplast protein translocation pathways and ubiquitin-dependent regulation at a glance
in Journal of Cell Science
Sun Y
(2023)
Chloroplast Proteostasis: Import, Sorting, Ubiquitination, and Proteolysis.
in Annual review of plant biology
Description | By manipulating expression of the chloroplast protein SP1, it is possible to manipulate important aspects of crop plant development and performance; for example, fruit ripening and abiotic stress tolerance. |
Exploitation Route | My manipulating SP1, we believe it will be possible to modify diverse aspects of chloroplast function, enabling novel crop improvement strategies; for example, improving the tolerance of crop plants to abiotic stress, or altering fruit ripening and fruit post-harvest properties. |
Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment |
URL | https://www.oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/content/hardy-crops-tackle-food-insecurity |
Description | The findings from this award have been used to support a US patent application on the potential applications of SP1 in novel crop improvement strategies. In addition to furthering our understanding of how the SP1 technology may be utilized, the new data will facilitate attempts to commercialize the technology, for example through licensing agreements. |
First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink |
Impact Types | Societal |
Description | BBSRC Follow-On Funding Pathfinder: "Manipulation of the chloroplast-associated protein degradation pathway (CHLORAD) - applications in plant breeding and biotechnology" (Jan - Jul 2019) |
Amount | £10,897 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/S013873/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2019 |
End | 07/2019 |
Description | China Scholarship Council (CSC) / British Council "China-British Joint Research Innovation Fund" scholarship to Ms Yuan Zhou (Jun 2018 - Jun 2019) |
Amount | £15,400 (GBP) |
Organisation | British Council |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2018 |
End | 06/2019 |
Description | Developing CHLORAD as a technology for crop improvement using wheat as a model |
Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/S50676X/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2020 |
End | 05/2021 |
Description | Improving yields and stress tolerance in wheat by using CHLORAD as a technology |
Amount | £561,563 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/W017741/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2023 |
End | 12/2024 |
Description | Manipulating CHLORAD in wheat: Altering expression of the plastid retrotranslocon SP2 in order to develop novel crop improvement strategies [OEX/RNAi] |
Amount | £1 (GBP) |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2019 |
End | 11/2020 |
Description | Dr Enrique Lopez-Juez, Royal Holloway, University of London |
Organisation | Royal Holloway, University of London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Collaboration on the import characteristics of newly identified mutant affecting the TIC machinery of chloroplasts |
Collaborator Contribution | Identification of the gene affected by the mutation |
Impact | Identification and characterization of a significant new mutant affecting the TIC machinery of chloroplasts; manuscript in preparation |
Start Year | 2012 |
Description | Dr Gail Preston, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford |
Organisation | University of Oxford |
Department | Department of Experimental Psychology |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We are collaborating on the role of SP1 in biotic stress responses in Arabidopsis and brassica, via a PhD studentship |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise in plant pathology |
Impact | The project is on-going. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Dr Masanori Izumi |
Organisation | Tohoku University |
Department | Graduate School of Life Sciences |
Country | Japan |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We are collaborating on the role of ubiquitination in chloroplast degradation by autophagy. Dr Izumi visited the group in Oxford for four months in 2015 on a Japanese government fellowship. |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise in autophagy. |
Impact | The work is on-going. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Dr Mats Töpel, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Sweden |
Organisation | University of Gothenburg |
Department | Department of Marine Sciences |
Country | Sweden |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We have collaborated on the phylogenetic analysis of STIC2-related proteins, and other chloroplast proteins, as well as on the analysis of whole genome sequence data. |
Collaborator Contribution | Advanced expertise in bioinformatics and phylogenetic analysis. |
Impact | Ling, Q., Broad, W., Trösch, R., Töpel, M., Demiral Sert, T., Lymperopoulos, P., Baldwin, A. and Jarvis, R.P. (2019) Ubiquitin-dependent chloroplast-associated protein degradation in plants. Science 363: eaav4467. Bédard, J., Trösch, R., Wu, F., Ling, Q., Flores-Pérez, Ú., Töpel, M., Nawaz, F. and Jarvis P. (2017) Suppressors of the chloroplast protein import mutant tic40 reveal a genetic link between protein import and thylakoid biogenesis. Plant Cell 29: 1726-1747. Trösch, R., Töpel, M., Flores-Pérez, Ú. and Jarvis, P. (2015) Genetic and physical interaction studies reveal functional similarities between ALBINO3 and ALBINO4 in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 169: 1292-1306. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Dr Qihua Ling, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology (SIPPE), China |
Organisation | Chinese Academy of Sciences |
Department | Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology |
Country | China |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We are continuing our work together on the further characterization of the CHLORAD pathway, following the establishment of Dr Ling's own group in China. |
Collaborator Contribution | We are collaborating on the further characterization of the CHLORAD pathway. |
Impact | We are collaborating on the further characterization of the CHLORAD pathway. Outputs are expected to appear soon. |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Prof. Matthew Terry, University of Southampton |
Organisation | University of Southampton |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We are providing expertise in the area of chloroplast protein import, as well as seeds of relevant mutant genotypes. We will be conducting analyses of the levels of components of the protein import machinery in a new mutant identified by our collaborators that displays defective plastid signalling. |
Collaborator Contribution | Our collaborators are supplying the new plastid signalling mutant to us, and are conducting detailed analyses on the mutant seed lines that we are providing. |
Impact | This collaboration is on-going and so has not yet generated any outputs. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Prof. Ralf Bock, Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam, Germany |
Organisation | Max Planck Society |
Department | Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | We are providing expertise in the area of chloroplast protein import in order to understand the role of a plastid signalling mutant. We hosted a visiting postdoctoral researcher from Germany in order that skills in this area may be transferred to our collaborators. |
Collaborator Contribution | Our collaborators provided the initial observations and the mutant genotypes of interest, and are completing the analyses in readiness for publication. |
Impact | The collaboration is on-going and so has not yet generated any outputs. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Professor Felix Kessler, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland |
Organisation | University of Neuchatel |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | A collaboration was established to share knowledge and optimize methods for the native purification of chloroplast translocon complexes using the tandem affinity purification (TAP) technique. As part of this collaboration, a researcher visited the Kessler laboratory for 10 days in 2010 (18th-29th January, 2010). Since then, the collaboration has continued to evolve and take new directions, for example related to the involvement of post-translation modification in the regulation of chloroplast protein import. As a result of the collaboration, Professor was invited visit our department in Oxford on 22 November 2018, and to give a seminar here. |
Collaborator Contribution | A collaboration was established to share knowledge and optimize methods for the native purification of chloroplast translocon complexes using the tandem affinity purification (TAP) technique. As part of this collaboration, a researcher visited the Kessler laboratory for 10 days in 2010 (18th-29th January, 2010). Since then, the collaboration has continued to evolve and take new directions, for example related to the involvement of post-translation modification in the regulation of chloroplast protein import. As a result of the collaboration, Professor was invited visit our department in Oxford on 22 November 2018, and to give a seminar here. |
Impact | Jarvis, P. and Kessler, F. (2014) Mechanisms of chloroplast protein import in plants. In: Advances in Plant Biology: Plastid Biology (S.M. Theg and F.-A. Wollman, eds.) Springer, New York, pp. 241-270. Aronsson, H., Combe, J., Patel, R., Agne, B., Martin, M., Kessler, F. and Jarvis, P. (2010) Nucleotide binding and dimerization at the chloroplast pre-protein import receptor, atToc33, are not essential in vivo but do increase import efficiency. Plant J. 63: 297-311. |
Start Year | 2010 |
Title | CONTROL OF PLASTID ASSOCIATED PROTEIN DEGRADATION |
Description | The patent application covers the possibility of manipulating CHLORAD to modify diverse aspects of chloroplast function, enabling novel crop improvement strategies; for example, improving the tolerance of crop plants to abiotic stress. |
IP Reference | GB1815206.6 |
Protection | Patent application published |
Year Protection Granted | 2018 |
Licensed | No |
Impact | Too early for impact to be assessed. |
Title | CONTROL OF PLASTID ASSOCIATED PROTEIN DEGRADATION I |
Description | The patent application covers the possibility of manipulating SP2 and CHLORAD to modify diverse aspects of chloroplast function, enabling novel crop improvement strategies; for example, improving the tolerance of crop plants to abiotic stress. |
IP Reference | GB1803833.1 |
Protection | Patent application published |
Year Protection Granted | 2018 |
Licensed | No |
Impact | Too early for impact to be assessed. |
Title | CONTROL OF PLASTID ASSOCIATED PROTEIN DEGRADATION II |
Description | The patent application covers the possibility of manipulating PUX10 (CDC48) and CHLORAD to modify diverse aspects of chloroplast function, enabling novel crop improvement strategies; for example, improving the tolerance of crop plants to abiotic stress. |
IP Reference | GB1803834.9 |
Protection | Patent application published |
Year Protection Granted | 2018 |
Licensed | No |
Impact | Too early for impact to be assessed. |
Title | Deconvolution software for interpretation of gene sequence data from new CRISPR/Cas9 mutants |
Description | We required the deconvolution of Sanger sequencing data to determine if the CRISPR-Cas9 induced mutations of genes of interest were true knockouts (as opposed to non-frameshifting point mutations). To achieve this we wrote a deconvolution program in Python programming language. This software enabled characterization of the heteroallelic CRISPR mutations without the necessity of cloning PCR products of the gene into bacteria (the time-consuming conventional method). It is in the process of being |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Impact | Too early to assess. |
Description | Animation illustrating our new discovery of the CHLORAD pathway, and how it may be manipulated to improve crop performance |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | In conjunction with Oxford Sparks (https://www.oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/), we prepared an animation illustrating our new discovery of the CHLORAD pathway, and illustrating in simple terms how it may be manipulated to improve crop performance. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/content/changing-plant-chloroplasts-improve-crop-performance |
Description | Established a group Twitter account |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A Twitter account (Jarvis Lab, @PaulJarvisLab) for reporting the activities of the group was established in January 2019. We use this to disseminate our research to the general public and a range of different audiences, and to connect with other groups with similar interests in plant biology. During the first two months we had 38 tweets and accumulated 184 followers. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://twitter.com/PaulJarvisLab |
Description | Participation in Fascination of Plant Day (May 2019) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Our group will participate in the Fascination of Plants Day on 11 May 2019. In particular, together with the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, we are preparing an outreach activity explaining the problem of salinity and land degradation. We will have a stand at the "Westgate Oxford" shopping centre on the day. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://epsoweb.org/all-events/fascination-of-plants-day-2019/ |