Agri-Tech Week 2019: Defence against pathogens on the NRP

Collaborative research to combat pathogens was the theme of the first event of Agri-Tech Week 2019, which was held at the Norwich Research Park (NRP), home to 115 companies, six major institutions and 12,000 staff.

Disease resistance

Prof Jonathan Jones of the Sainsbury Laboratory was among the first to isolate and characterize disease resistance genes.  His work on the tomato Cf-9 gene was announced  25 years ago today (4 November 1994).  This breakthrough paved the way for greater understanding about the relationship between plant and pathogens, the development of several lines of transgenic potatoes.

This work has resulted in a long-term collaboration with Solynta, a Dutch-based potato breeding company which recently set up a base on the NRP to be closer to the research action. Pim Lindhout, Solynta’s CEO, talked about the impact of hybrid potato breeding on potato science, breeding and industry, in particular about the value of this partnership and the journey both organisations have undertaken together to bring new ideas to commercial reality for agriculture.

Understanding pathogens

From potatoes, talk turned to sugar beet with BBRO’s Mark Stevens talking about the current research programmes underway to identify and help manage the various foliar pathogens challenging the sugar beet crop. Use of spore traps and predictive crop models are helping improve efficiency and profitability for both growers and processors.

Another issue discussed was how wild relatives of agricultural crops (such as sea beet) can act as pathogen ‘reservoirs’ and how important it is to understand the behaviour of pathogen populations as they evolve to overcome host resistance. This was illustrated by Mark McMullan from the Earlham Institute, who has worked on the population dynamics of the fungus responsible for Ash Dieback disease; he explained the intricacies of microbial sex – more complicated than you might imagine.

Alternatives to antibiotics

Delegates who attended REAP 2018 might remember FOLIUM at the Start-Up Showcase and their breakthrough work on ‘guided biotics‘, which provide an alternative to antibiotics and a potential solution to the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance in agriculture.

FOLIUM is developing a new class of highly specific anti-bacterial technology based on a natural biomolecule called RNA, which is delivered directly to the pathogen. RNA has a sequence, just like DNA, and if specifically coded it can trigger a natural process in the target bacteria that guides the bacteria’s own enzymes to degrade and digest the cell material. The process leaves no residues and so overcomes the problems of resistance. The ‘Guided Biotic’ enables highly selective control of unwanted bacteria – even those resistant to antibiotics – while protecting closely related beneficial species of bacteria.

The FOLIUM products are based on research underway in Jacob Malone’s group at the John Innes Centre. His ongoing work around bacterial sensing is helping generate new insights for alternatives to antibiotics to improve animal health and potentially develop alternative methods to control crop diseases.

Climatic impacts on disease 

Climate resilience in agriculture was one of the themes of this Agri-Tech Week event, as institutes on the Norwich Research Park have particular strengths in climate and geo-sciences.

Weather impacts the ability of pathogens to take hold and Weatherquest’s CEO Steve discussed progress towards weatherproofing agriculture and horticulture. He emphasised the importance of data sharing and applying new insights tailored to farmers to help them mitigate the risks posed by the weather.

Finally, Hannah Stone of Anglia Capital Group gave an overview of the mechanism of angel investing, giving tips to would-be entrepreneurs seeking investment and citing PBD Biotech as a successful recipient of investment from the consortium.

About the Norwich Research Park 

The Norwich Research Park’s (NRP) six science partners form an international centre of excellence in life and environmental sciences research, with particular strengths in plant and microbial sciences, genetics and genomics, climate and geo-sciences and food, health and human nutrition.

The campus stretches from the University of East Anglia (UEA) to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals (NNUH) and includes a number of research institutes: the Earlham Institute (EI), Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB), John Innes Centre (JIC) and the Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL). It has attracted a good number of early stage companies as tenants and they benefit from access to the expertise and capitally intensive equipment located on the park.