Doctoral Training Partnerships: a range of postgraduate training is funded by the Research Councils. For information on current funding routes, see the common terminology at https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-we-fund-studentships/. Training grants may be to one organisation or to a consortia of research organisations. This portal will show the lead organisation only.

Doctoral Training Partnerships: a range of postgraduate training is funded by the Research Councils. For information on current funding routes, see the common terminology at https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-we-fund-studentships/. Training grants may be to one organisation or to a consortia of research organisations. This portal will show the lead organisation only.

Crop production on large commercial farms and smallholder farms produces seeds, grains, pulses and vegetables that provide protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins and minerals in the diet. Unfortunately, for crops grown in temperate (including the UK), tropical and sub-tropical environments around the world, many insect pests attack crops, causing severe losses from pest feeding damage and the spread of diseases. Although crops can be protected from insect pests by pesticides, they do not offer a permanent solution to pest management as they are neither completely effective nor sustainable. It is vital that new strategies to defend crop production against insect pests are developed. Insects use their sense of smell to detect and locate suitable host plants for feeding or egg-laying, and to find a suitable mating partner for reproduction. The odour of host plants and of potential mating partners comprises of attractive and repellent volatile organic compounds. This ecological interaction can be exploited in crop protection by using attractive odours to pull insect pests into traps and using repellent odours to push pests away from crops, even using both sets of odours at the same time as part of a "push-pull" strategy. The use of attractive and repellent odours to modify insect pest behaviour has been identified as a major alternative to the use of chemicals that kill pests ie. pesticides. The application of such odours as crop protection tools is yet to be fully exploited because of the difficulty in producing sufficient quantities and quality of odour material that can be used on crops. Technology for improved production of these odours is urgently needed. One possible route to improved production is to use enzymes to produce the odours on a larger scale, provided that the enzymes can themselves be produced at an industrial scale beforehand. We have shown that volatile compounds (isoprenoids) are attractive and repellent odours that are very effective in suppressing populations of insect pests affecting bean, maize, coffee, citrus and cotton production, and also pests affecting poultry production. However, application of the isoprenoids for pest management in crop production is currently not feasible due to difficulties associated with scaled-up production and product purity. If production of the enzymes (terpene synthases) that make the isoprenoids can be improved, then we have an opportunity to develop strategies for pest management based on modifying insect pest behaviour that are potentially more sustainable than those heavily or solely reliable on pesticide deployment. The genes encoding the terpene synthases have been previously isolated and characterised from plants and shown to retain their bioactivity when overexpressed in yeast or E. coli bacteria. However, terpene synthases are generally poorly expressed in E. coli with toxicity issues well known. Our partner Biocleave Ltd have demonstrated that Clostridia bacteria, as an alternative host system, can express proteins that cannot be produced by E. coli or other established protein production hosts, and will be used as an alternative, and potentially more efficient, option for production of terpene synthases on a commercial scale. In this project, we will optimise small-scale expression of terpene synthase genes in Clostridia and purify the enzymes; develop chemistry for the production of terpene synthase substrates and convert them to isoprenoids using the terpene synthases; use electrophysiological recordings and laboratory behavioural assays to measure the biological activity of synthesized isoprenoids on pest insect targets; refine and scale up production of terpene synthases for the increased production of isoprenoids; explain, to farmers, agribusiness and other relevant parties, our new approach to the production of volatile isoprenoids and their role in crop protection against insect pests, based on deployment of attractive and repellent odour.

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate global warming while still managing to fuel and feed the world, many industries need to move towards using renewable carbon neutral feedstocks and away from using oil and petrochemicals. 'Bio'refineries making advanced transportation fuels and chemicals from plant biomass (i.e. agricutural wastes such as straw, or wood cuttings) have the potential to revolutionize the industrial landscape and make production of our fuels and chemicals more sustainable, but this will only succeed if sufficient value can be extracted from the feedstock to make the refining economically competitive with oil refining. This MaxBio project aims to improve the economics of biorefining by optimizing several different stages of the process in a holistic way that ensures that yields of end products are increased beyond what's currently possible.