FloodAlert! Developing biostimulants to protect winter crops from submergence

The Challenge: Flooding is a major cause of yield loss in crops and is increasing globally with climate change. Farmers in the UK are suffering the consequences of this; the 18 months leading up to March 2024 were the wettest on record resulting in significant yield loss, reduction in ‘farmable’ land and government compensation to farmers of over £57M. Autumn-sown cereal crops are commercially important, but particularly vulnerable to wet winters. There is a pressing need to find ways in which UK and global agriculture can tolerate and recover after flood events in order to maintain food supplies and farmers’ incomes. Context: Plants are able to sense when they are flooded due to a reduction in oxygen availability (hypoxia). Under these conditions, transcription factors called Group VII ethylene response transcription factors (ERFVIIs) are stabilised and upregulate genes which allow acclimation to the flooded environment through metabolic reconfiguration. In BBSRC-funded work, we have found that Plant Cysteine Oxidases (PCOs) are conserved enzymes which use oxygen to trigger degradation of ERFVIIs. It is the reduced activity of these PCO enzymes in hypoxia that results in flood-induced stabilisation of ERFVIIs and temporary plant survival of submergence. Aim: It is known that stabilisation of ERFVIIs can improve their survival of a future low oxygen event. This can be artificially induced even when plants are not flooded, in what is known as a ‘priming event’. We have shown that reducing PCO activity via competitive inhibition is an effective way of achieving such a priming event. We will build on this knowledge to develop potent and biosafe activators of plant submergence tolerance, focussing on winter wheat. By the end of the FoF grant, we will have a range of patented products, be ready to conduct field trials (winter 2027) and will have spun out MermaidAg, a company with which to market plant treatments that promote stress survival, also known as biostimulants. Strategy: Technically, we will develop a toolkit of biostimulants using a pipeline of screening platforms comprising established and rapid in silico, cellular, seedling and protein assays which will identify 10 potent PCO-specific biostimulants. We will test these in an in-house winter wheat submergence assay for their ability to promote survival. Parallel to our technical work, we will conduct further market exploration, ensure IP protection for our optimised biostimulants and identify partners with which to conduct field trials in winter wheat (post-award). We will also establish MermaidAg, a company to develop and market our best biostimulant products. Beyond the FoF, MermaidAg will develop additional biostimulants, both to treat a range of flood-susceptible crops and for protection against other stresses. Application and benefits: This project will develop a crop protection product which can be applied to winter wheat seedlings when they are most vulnerable to submergence, enhancing their resilience to this stress. This will be highly relevant to wheat farmers in the UK and elsewhere where crop yields are under threat from increasingly wet winters. In the long-term, MermaidAg will develop biostimulants that help protect a range of crops against flooding and other stresses, thereby supporting food security and farmers’ incomes in the UK and beyond.