A Framework for Engineering Stress Resilient Plants Using Genetic Feedback Control and Regulatory Network Rewiring

Area of Science:

• Plant biology
• Synthetic biology
• Systems biology

Background:

• Crop diseases cause significant global waste and economic losses.
• Pathogens manipulate plant defense mechanisms and gene regulatory networks for successful colonization.
• Understanding plant-pathogen interactions is crucial for developing disease resistance strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a synthetic biology approach for mitigating pathogen-induced network perturbations in plants.
• To model and understand Arabidopsis defense subnetworks against Botrytis cinerea infection.
• To design and test genetic feedback control strategies for enhancing plant resilience.

Main Methods:

• Utilized gene expression data from infected Arabidopsis plants.
• Employed network inference and system identification to model a plant defense subnetwork.
• Designed and tested synthetic genetic feedback controllers to mitigate perturbations.

Main Results:

• Developed an accurate model of an Arabidopsis defense subnetwork.
• Successfully designed a synthetic feedback controller to attenuate perturbations on the transcription factor CHE.
• Investigated two biological implementation strategies for the feedback controller.

Conclusions:

• Combining feedback control theory and synthetic biology offers a powerful approach for engineering plant resilience.
• This strategy can enhance plant defense mechanisms against pathogens and environmental stress.
• Highlights the potential for creating more sustainable agriculture through engineered crop resilience.