Plant Research on the Norwich Research Park
Life on Earth owes much to the ability of plants to convert energy from the sun into a form that humans and animals can use. This process, known as photosynthesis, uses carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) and produces oxygen which is needed by other life forms, including animals, fungi and many bacteria. Plants provide us with food, energy, clothing, medicines and building materials. The domestication of many plant species has had a major influence on the development of civilisations over the last ten thousand years.
The Norwich Research Park is home to some of the very best plant science research in the world; with scientists exploring how plants develop, reproduce, tolerate stress and defend themselves against disease. Much of this is fundamental research, but the knowledge it generates has great potential for application in agriculture and food production, providing new opportunities to develop economically and environmentally sustainable agro-industries. Understanding the central role played by plants in the world’s ecosystems will also support policy decisions on environmental issues and conservation.
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Fundamentals of Plant Growth and Development
Improving crops
Plants as food
Raw materials from plants
Signalling and defence
Plant populations and conservation
Managing plants as a natural resource
Fundamentals of Plant Growth and Development
The basic genetic systems that control many aspects plant growth, development and reproduction are being investigated on the NRP, particularly at the John Innes Centre. By identifying the precise genes responsible for determining a plant's development and its responses to changing environmental conditions, scientists are unravelling the complex processes which control plant growth. They are also investigating the evolution of plants and their adaptation to different environments and in particular the importance of changes to specific genes in response to environmental cues.
The knowledge being generated is relevant to agriculture; genes that control plant stature, shape, over-wintering responses and growth in response to stress or disease are potentially useful for improving crop performance. Guided by evolutionary principles, knowledge of biological processes obtained in laboratory plants such as thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) is used to understand processes in crop plants such as Brassicas and cereals. This small weed is used widely as a “model” plant to help them and colleagues round the world understand more about its more complex cousins.
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Improving crop plants
For over 10,000 years humans have harnessed plants for their own use, leading to the domestication of our major crops. More recently, plant breeders have developed higher-yielding varieties that are adapted to specific environmental conditions and able to tolerate some diseases. Yet disease and environmental conditions still limit the yields of crops in many parts of the world.
Scientists on the NRP are working to improve a number of crop species, including cereals, legumes and brassicas. The aim is to understand the genetic basis for many of the agriculturally important features of plants, and to develop new genetic tools to help breeders improve crop performance in the field. The methods being developed should enable the breeding of high-yielding, stress and disease resistant varieties of crops by design rather than selecting random variants using current approaches. One example is the recent identification of the structure of the Ph1 locus in wheat which controls chromosome pairing. Understanding this locus should allow crop breeders to more easily introgress important traits from wild germplasm.
The John Innes Centre is home to important plant germplasm collections in its specially designed seed bank which maintains the seeds under the optimum conditions for long term storage. The UK cereals germplasm collection is held on the NRP and includes very rare examples of wheat land-races that were collected almost a century ago. These may carry genes for disease resistance or other useful traits that can be incorporated into the breeding programmes. The collection also houses the world's largest stocks of defined pea mutants and ecotypes as well as a large range of legumes from around the world.
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The major staple carbohydrates and proteins in our diet come from plants, including wheat, potatoes, rice and maize. Plant-based foods also make other vital contributions to our diet, such as vitamins and minerals, as well as providing sources of fibre. But some crops can provide us with extra benefits for our general health, as NRP scientists are finding out; identifying so-called "phytochemicals" in plant-based foods that help reduce the risk of certain types of diseases is now a major strength on the site. Broccoli and berry fruits are two examples in which researchers are investigating phytochemicals that have a positive impact on our health.
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However, certain plant-based foods, such as peanuts or apples may trigger an allergic reaction in some people. So NRP researchers are devoting considerable resources into understanding the biological basis of allergic reactions which may ultimately help reduce the incidences in susceptible people.
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Raw materials from plants
As well as being a vital food source, plants also provide us with other materials, such as fibre, (cotton, linen), fuel (wood, biofuel from plant oils or sugars) and building materials (wood, bamboo). Naturally–occurring chemicals in plants are also increasingly being examined for their potential as pharmaceuticals. The NRP has a number of experts focussed on harnessing the “biofactory” potential of plants. For example, there is a lot of interest in using crops to provide raw materials for industry, such as starch, proteins or cellulose. By understanding the fundamental biochemical and genetic systems involved in the synthesis of useful materials it should be possible to improve these products in plants, or processes that use them. NRP researchers are contributing to the international effort to use plants more widely as a renewable resource. For instance, a recent project which combines plant genetics, chemistry and physics is developing novel biodegradable agricultural films that can be made to degrade in a controlled fashion.
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Signaling and disease resistance
When plants are challenged with an environmental stress, or are invaded by a disease-causing organism, sophisticated signaling processes are triggered inside the plant. Understanding these signaling mechanisms is a significant area of research interest on the NRP; one major goal is to intercept, or mimic such processes in order to improve plant disease resistance. For example, when one leaf of a plant is infected by a harmful bacterium, a signal is released which alerts the rest of the plant to what has happened. The whole plant then produces a defense response to protect the non-infected parts of the plant from becoming infected and possible death. Environmental stresses to the plant, such as intense light or extremes of temperature, also trigger defense mechanisms which are being studied by NRP researchers to try and reduce the impact of such stresses on plants, and therefore ultimately help reduce crop yield losses. The Sainsbury Laboratory alone, for example, contains around 65 researchers focused on understanding microbial diseases of plants. Bacterial, fungal and viral plant diseases are all under investigation, with scientists identifying the factors in the both the host plant and the pathogen that allow infection to take place. The question as to why every plant species is not infected by every pathogen underpins much of the work on the NRP - understanding this so-called "non-host resistance" is the crucial in order to develop new plant varieties for disease tolerance.
A large amount of this research is carried out using thale cress, (Arabidopsis thaliana), the plant model used by plant scientists across the world. Understanding the response of this small plant to infections gives important insights into the mechanisms of disease resistance in more complex crop species.
Further information on using Arabidopsis to study aspects of plant diseases and stress responses: signalling systems and systemic acquired resistance.
The control of some of the most significant diseases of wheat and other cereal crops such as barley and rice is a major focus of research, including Fusarium, yellow rust, Septoria, and the take-all fungus Magnaporthe grisea. Similarly Cladosporium fulvum, the fungal disease of potato and tomato is a focus of work at the Sainsbury Laboratory and at UEA.
Plant populations and conservation
As well as investigating the internal processes controlling plant growth and development and responses to changing conditions, NRP researchers are also interested in the ecology of plants. In particular they are studying plants in environments that have been degraded or altered by human activity to provide scientific under-pinning for the development of strategies for species conservation or the reconstruction of degraded ecosystems.
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Managing plants as a natural resource
While some researchers on the NRP are aiming to improve the performance of crop plants in the field, others are focusing on the wider socio-economic impact of arable agriculture, particularly in developing countries. Managing soil fertility and agro- and bio-diversity is crucial for the survival of many subsistence farmers, and there is expertise on the NRP to work with farmers in developing countries to identify areas in which changes in management could offer new opportunities.
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Last Updated: 20/05/2010 15:07