Grant: Alliance Grants

The climate changes put pressure on the agriculture system to develop more environmental-friendly approaches to mitigate the threats of plant pathogens and pests in food production. One way to fulfill this need is to understand the mode of action and targets of the plants' natural weapons and exploit this information for the biological control of pests and weeds. To this end, the proposed research will investigate the proteins targeted by the biogenic molecule 2-Hexenal (2-Hex) emitted by plants in the event of pest attack and which may have allelopathic properties as it was found to inhibit the root growth of the weed Arabidopsis thaliana. We hypothesize that 2-Hex inhibits the enzyme activity of the succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase enzyme which the mutation severely impairs plant growth. To test this hypothesis, we want to achieve the following three specific aims: 1) To characterize the effect of 2-Hex on succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase activity; 2) To generate a ranked list of 2-Hex-reactive proteins at the genome scale. This is to test our alternative hypothesis that 2-Hex targets proteins other than succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase; 3) To validate the biological importance of the interaction of 2-Hex with the selected target proteins in the cells and the whole plant. To achieve these objectives, we will mainly use molecular biology tools and chemical proteomics approaches based on liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. These techniques will be taught to a new generation of researchers, namely 2 Ph.D. students and 3 undergraduates. We will test our findings in five species including three major cultivated plants in Canada: canola, tomato, and maize. Our goal is also to facilitate knowledge transfer to the producers and the agriculture industry. That is why we plan meetings with stakeholders including two major aggregators and producers' networks in Quebec and Ontario to disseminate the outcome of this research. Overall, the project will allow 1) to identify the proteins that bind to 2-Hexenal emitted as a green leaf volatile aldehyde, and 2) to devise new strategies for biological control of weeds or integrated pest management.