Chemical intervention in plant sugar signalling increases yield and resilience

A - Papers appearing in refereed journals

Griffiths, C. A., Sagar, R., Geng, Y., Primavesi, L. F., Patel, M. K., Passarelli, M. K., Gilmore, I. S., Steven, R. T., Bunch, J., Paul, M. J. and Davis, B. G. 2016. Chemical intervention in plant sugar signalling increases yield and resilience. Nature. 540, pp. 574-578. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20591

AuthorsGriffiths, C. A., Sagar, R., Geng, Y., Primavesi, L. F., Patel, M. K., Passarelli, M. K., Gilmore, I. S., Steven, R. T., Bunch, J., Paul, M. J. and Davis, B. G.
Abstract

The pressing global issue of food insecurity due to population growth, diminishing land and variable climate can only be addressed in agriculture by improving both maximum crop yield potential and resilience1,2. Genetic modification is one potential solution, but has yet to achieve worldwide acceptance, particularly for crops such as wheat3. Trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P), a central sugar signal in plants, regulates sucrose use and allocation, underpinning crop growth and development4,5. Here we show that application of a chemical intervention strategy directly modulates T6P levels in planta. Plant-permeable analogues of T6P were designed and constructed based on a ‘signalling-precursor’ concept for permeability, ready uptake and sunlight-triggered release of T6P in planta. We show that chemical intervention in a potent sugar signal increases grain yield, whereas application to vegetative tissue improves recovery and resurrection from drought. This technology offers a means to combine increases in yield with crop stress resilience. Given the generality of the T6P pathway in plants and other small-molecule signals in biology, these studies suggest that suitable synthetic exogenous small-molecule signal precursors can be used to directly enhance plant performance and perhaps other organism function. 

KeywordsRRES175; 175_Plant sciences
Year of Publication2016
JournalNature
Journal citation540, pp. 574-578
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20591
PubMed ID 27974806
Open accessPublished as non-open access
FunderBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Funder project or codeWheat
Trehalose signalling: understanding and exploiting an emerging small molecule carbohydrate paradigm
Increasing wheat drought tolerance and recovery throughout the life cycle through regulation of plant growth mechanisms
Project: 6077
Project: 4766
Project: 5382
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online14 Dec 2016
Publication process dates
Accepted28 Oct 2016
PublisherSpringer Nature
Nature Publishing Group
Copyright licensePublisher copyright
Grant IDBB/D006112/1
ISSN0028-0836

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