Scientists have been awarded a €1.5m grant (over five years) to investigate the immune system in important crops.

Dr Ksenia Krasileva, Group Leader at the Earlham Institute and the Sainsbury Laboratory, will research into plants' immune system to create new genetic solutions for protecting plant health and future sustainable crop production.

Fungal diseases and highly virulent plant pathogens endanger global production of food crops, considerably reducing yields.

They can be fought with fungicides and pesticides, yet these substances are not always safe for humans and the environment.







Plants, however, have their own ability to detect and disarm rapidly evolving pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, insects and fungi.

Using genetic information will help generate new methods to protect plants from pests and disease

Their powerful defence mechanisms rely on a particularly rich arsenal of plant immune receptors.

Among these receptors, NLR-IDs are proteins which have proliferated for at least 500 million years and serve as ‘baits’ for pathogen molecules.

Dr Krasileva and her group will investigate how these receptors diversify in maize, rice and wheat.

Using this genetic information will help generate new methods to protect plants from pests and disease.

Crop yields and global food security

Dr Krasileva, said the scientists propose to combine powerful next generation sequencing and bioinformatics methods, as well as molecular biology techniques, in order to unravel how the grasses can keep up with ever-persistent diseases.

"We will eventually generate new ways that our most vital crops can withstand them," Dr Krasileva said.

"Through firstly identifying how plant disease receptors have diversified within the genomes of the grasses, to then unraveling the mechanisms by which they work, we can then use this knowledge and apply engineering to plant breeding.

"The end goal to keep our fields healthy and stave-off the tide of disease-causing pests that ravage our crop yields and threaten global food security."

Plants are not so dissimilar from humans, where they are similarly affected by a range of diseases, parasites and pests.

Though they lack white blood cells, plants do have an immune system - which lies coded within DNA, the blueprint of life.

Within this blueprint lies information that allows plants to generate receptors that can recognise the patterns produced by pests and disease-causing organisms.

Considering that the grasses, including wheat, rice and maize, are the most abundant crop species globally, it is incredibly important to study how these mechanisms work in such plants.

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced its Starting Grants to 325 early-career researchers throughout Europe.

The funding, worth in total €485 million and up to €1.5 million per grant, will enable them to set up their own research teams and pursue ground-breaking ideas.