UK Researchers Find New Crop Protection Enzyme
2 May 2014 
Firth Court at the University of Sheffield. Photo credit: Flickr user SICSheffield. Creative Commons license.
Researchers at the University of Sheffield, UK discovered a new plant receptor enzyme called IBI1 that enables plants to defend themselves against insects and diseases.
Dr. Jurrian Ton and Dr. Estrella Luna identified IBI1 as the key molecule in plant cells that is able to make the crop protection chemical BABA do its job more effectively, according to a press release.
BABA, or beta-aminobutyric acid, is a well-known plant pathogen inhibitor that protects against potato blight and other bacteria and parasites. However, its use has not been widespread among farmers because of its tendency to prevent growth.
The scientists were able to separate these effects by molecularly binding the IBI1 receptor protein to the BABA chemical, the University explained in a press release.
“Importantly, our study also revealed that the undesirable side effect of this vaccination, a reduction in growth, can be uncoupled from the beneficial immune reaction,” said Dr. Oliver Berkowitz of the University of Western Australia who was also part of the research team.
While IBI1 was previously only thought to drive plant metabolism, the new pairing caused plant cells to rev their immune systems, revealing a second function of the protein, the scientists explained in a press release.
“Plant immunity that is controlled by a single resistance gene, on which most conventional breeding programs are based, is comparably easy to overcome by a pathogen. By contrast, priming of multi-genic immunity by BABA is difficult to break, thus offering more durable crop protection,” Dr. Ton said.
“Since plant immunization by BABA is long-lasting, primed crops would require fewer applications of fungicides, thereby increasing sustainability of crop protection. Furthermore, immune priming boosts so-called multi-genic resistance in plants,” Dr. Berkowitz added.
The researchers conducted the study, published in Nature Chemical Biology in April 2014, on Arabidopsis thaliana plants.
Other contributors included researchers from Utrecht University in The Netherlands, the University of Jaume I inSpain, the University of Melbourne in Australia, UK company Rothamsted Research and China company Firmenich Aromatics.
The University of Sheffield employs three professors who are Fellows of the Royal Society, a British honor for scientific research also held by Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Five former University employees and alumni have won the Nobel Prize.
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