Invention of the First Immune Platform to Combat Agricultural Epidemics
Chinese scientists have successfully developed the first artificial intelligence-powered platform for designing custom synthetic immune receptors for plants, capable of combating emerging diseases that threaten commercial crops and global food security.
The new technology relies on engineering proteins that bind to pathogen proteins, thereby triggering an immune response in plants to neutralize threats within weeks rather than years, according to the research team from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the biotechnology company Chi BioDesign.
The scientists published their findings in the journal Science, explaining that the synthetic immune system enables rapid recognition of new and emerging pathogen proteins, addressing a long-standing challenge faced by plant breeders. Natural resistance was previously quickly overcome by pathogen evolution in modern agricultural systems that rely on the widespread cultivation of genetically identical crops.
Key elements highlighted by researchers in their new system include:
• The success of synthetic receptors in achieving immune recognition and activation against proteins from 14 viruses, two bacteria, one fungus, and one oomycete that cause devastating plant diseases.
• Testing of 391 synthetic receptors, of which approximately 18 percent demonstrated strong and specific immune responses, while about 58 percent showed varying levels of autoimmune activity, and roughly 24 percent exhibited no immune activity against the targets.
Researchers noted that some pathogens targeted by the receptors affect vital crops such as potatoes and tomatoes. They emphasized that the absence of immune activity may be due to defects in protein expression, failures in the designed receptors to bind to target proteins, or an inability to trigger the response. The team clarified that their system provides a versatile platform for efficiently engineering plant immunity, with the capacity to counter deliberate biological threats such as agricultural terrorism and plant biological weapons.
Researchers stressed that the ability to design synthetic receptors within weeks rather than years represents a transformative leap in accelerating the breeding of disease-resistant varieties and responding to emerging plant epidemics, thereby enhancing global food security in the face of growing agricultural challenges.
