Difference between revisions of "Team:SECA NZ/Description"

 
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        <h1>Our <mark class="green-mark">Vision</mark></h1>
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                  What we wanted to see with our project
  
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          In New Zealand, 91% of kiwifruit growers cite winter temperatures as the greatest threat to crop yield. Source: Cradock-Henry, N. (2017).
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          Cold temperatures can stunt growth, cause severe plant damage, and even kill growing plants, making them a severe risk to the industry that needs to be addressed.
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          While there are potential treatments, as shown in the image, we think there is another way to reduce the impact of frost.
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          Our vision is to have crop plants that do not require these costly interventions in order to be protected from winter temperatures.
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          We hope that in time farmers will not fear the oncoming of winter, or have their livelihood threatened by a sudden frost. Genetic engineering provides an avenue for this.
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          Frost resistance genes, in the form of Ice Recrystallisation Inhibition Proteins and Antifreeze Proteins, are well documented in many species, both plants and animals and can be used to protect crop plants from the kind of damage caused by cold without the need for other interventions.
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          We hope to improve crop yields, therefore reducing waste and making better use of the farmland that is in current use. We want to make it possible to grow crops in colder, or more unstable environments than it is currently possible to do, through improving the cold tolerance of these plants. We hope this would lift some of the limitations imposed on farmers by cold winter temperatures.
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            <img class="card-img-top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/1/1d/SECA_NZ-French_Candles.jpg" alt="transform photo">
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                Fig1. shows a Négociant in Bordeaux, France lighting candles to protect his grapes from frost. This shows the lengths growers will go protect their livelihoods.
  
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                <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/apr/28/french-winemakers-candles-heaters-helicopters-save-vines-frost-bordeaux-champagne">Source</a>
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            Current methods of frost protection are expensive, labour intensive, and are often ineffective. These methods include selectively breeding for frost resistance traits, adding frost covers, setting up gas heaters or candles (as shown), using fans or helicopters to churn up the air, and using sprinklers to naturally insulate the crops as the water freezes. Unfortunately, each method comes with its own limitations. We hope that genetics could be the answer to this.
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<h1>Description</h1>
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            <h3>Find out what we achieved in our project<a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:SECA_NZ/Results"> here.</a></h3>
  
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<p>With an ever-growing world population, having sustainable and reliable crops for food production
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is becoming increasingly important. However, every year millions of dollars’ worth of produce is damaged, lost, or never produced because of frosts. Frost damages new shoots and buds of crop plants through the formation of ice crystals within the tissues, which rupture the surrounding cells. As a result, new plant and fruit growth is severely inhibited. Despite promising research into frost resistance mechanisms, the majority of producers still utilise costly, and often ineffective, traditional methods of frost avoidance. Our team seeks to introduce a variety of frost resistance genes into the model organisms Arabidopsis thaliana and Escherichia coli for characterisation. This will provide insight into the varying ability of frost resistance genes to protect model organisms at sub-zero temperatures, ultimately leading to the production of frost tolerant crops.
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<p>We are using Arabidopsis and E.coli to test both the function of these mechanisms and their protein output. </p>
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<p>We hope to create a pathway for future research to get frost-resistant plants into the ground in the coming years.</p>
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<h5>What should this page contain?</h5>
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<h5>Advice on writing your Project Description</h5>
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We encourage you to put up a lot of information and content on your wiki, but we also encourage you to include summaries as much as possible. If you think of the sections in your project description as the sections in a publication, you should try to be consist, accurate and unambiguous in your achievements.
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Judges like to read your wiki and know exactly what you have achieved. This is how you should think about these sections; from the point of view of the judge evaluating you at the end of the year.
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<h5>Inspiration</h5>
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<p>See how other teams have described and presented their projects: </p>
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<li><a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College/Description">2016 Imperial College</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:Wageningen_UR/Description">2016 Wageningen UR</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:UC_Davis/Project_Overview"> 2014 UC Davis</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:SYSU-Software/Overview">2014 SYSU Software</a></li>
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Latest revision as of 01:28, 1 November 2017

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Our Vision

What we wanted to see with our project

In New Zealand, 91% of kiwifruit growers cite winter temperatures as the greatest threat to crop yield. Source: Cradock-Henry, N. (2017).

Cold temperatures can stunt growth, cause severe plant damage, and even kill growing plants, making them a severe risk to the industry that needs to be addressed.

While there are potential treatments, as shown in the image, we think there is another way to reduce the impact of frost.

Our vision is to have crop plants that do not require these costly interventions in order to be protected from winter temperatures.

We hope that in time farmers will not fear the oncoming of winter, or have their livelihood threatened by a sudden frost. Genetic engineering provides an avenue for this.

Frost resistance genes, in the form of Ice Recrystallisation Inhibition Proteins and Antifreeze Proteins, are well documented in many species, both plants and animals and can be used to protect crop plants from the kind of damage caused by cold without the need for other interventions.

We hope to improve crop yields, therefore reducing waste and making better use of the farmland that is in current use. We want to make it possible to grow crops in colder, or more unstable environments than it is currently possible to do, through improving the cold tolerance of these plants. We hope this would lift some of the limitations imposed on farmers by cold winter temperatures.

transform photo

Fig1. shows a Négociant in Bordeaux, France lighting candles to protect his grapes from frost. This shows the lengths growers will go protect their livelihoods. Source

Current methods of frost protection are expensive, labour intensive, and are often ineffective. These methods include selectively breeding for frost resistance traits, adding frost covers, setting up gas heaters or candles (as shown), using fans or helicopters to churn up the air, and using sprinklers to naturally insulate the crops as the water freezes. Unfortunately, each method comes with its own limitations. We hope that genetics could be the answer to this.

Find out what we achieved in our project here.