Recipient organisationCardiff UniversitySource-published name: Cardiff University
Funding£206K
PeriodMar 2025 — Mar 2027
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
Tomato plants have a built-in defence system that they rarely use, and this project will switch it on by editing a single gene. The problem is straightforward: tomatoes are the world’s second most important non-cereal crop, but fungal and bacterial diseases destroy large portions of each harvest. Farmers currently rely on chemical sprays that harm the environment and only work temporarily. The researcher has identified a gene called NRX that, when active, suppresses the plant’s natural ability to fight off pathogens by blocking oxygen and nitrogen free radicals in the cell nucleus. This project will use CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to knock down NRX expression in tomato plants, effectively removing the brake on their immune system. If successful, the research will produce edited tomato lines with improved resistance to six major pathogens, including *Rhizoctonia solani* and *Fusarium oxysporum*. The team will also create over-expressing lines for comparison and use the UK National Plant Phenomic Centre to image infection outcomes. The molecular data will feed into network models explaining how NRX controls defence. The practical payoff could be commercial tomato varieties that need fewer chemical sprays, reducing environmental damage while protecting yields. The project is applied proof-of-principle work, not fundamental science—the goal is a usable tool for growers.
View original technical description
Tomato is the next most important non-cereal crop after potato but yield losses due to fungal and bacterial diseases can be considerable. Although, the use of fungicides/bactericides can control such diseases, they have wider environmental effects so that they are only a short-term solution. A better strategy is to boost the crop's innate defences. I have previously helped to define a key regulatory defence node; nucleoredoxin (NRX) which suppresses oxygen and nitrogen free radical accumulation in the nucleus. However, this effect also suppresses defences against a wide-range of pathogens. This project will address the hypothesis that downward modulation of NRX expression will boost defence against disease. This will involve proof of principle work in tomato based on gene editing using CRISPR/Cas9 technology as well as generating plants that over-express NRX. The impact of NRX gene manipulation will be assessed in responses to economically important tomato pathogens; Rhizoctonia solani, Alternaria solani and Ralstonia. Solanacearum, Erwinia carotovora and Fusarium oxysporum. The project will focus on the well-established tomato cv. Moneymaker. Infected and uninfected plants will be imaged at the UK National Plant Phenomic Centre to provide digital description of the impact of NRX manipulation. The molecular effects of altered NRX expression will be assessed using transcriptomic and metabolomic data focusing on changes on infection and also fruit development. This omic data will be integrated into network models to understand the mechanism of NRX action in tomato. Outputs from the project will be CRISPR/Cas9 constructs and new lines with improved tomato defence against pathogens and proof of principle that NRX knockout can be exploited for commercial tomato production either through gene editing or transfer to non-transgenic approaches.
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