STTR Phase I: Mitochondria-ON: a Platform for Light-Responsive Energy Generation in Plant Mitochondria

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is a more productive and resilient food supply, enabled by enhanced growth and stress tolerance for a wide range of crop plants. This project aims to impart these benefits through the development of a technology that augments plant mitochondrial function using light to reduce oxygen instead of electron transfer. The technology offers an entirely novel means of accelerating plant growth and increasing plant stress tolerance, potentially leading to increased yields and crop loss reductions. Even marginal crop yield increases can have significant economic impacts; thus, the proposed technology—which can be introduced into any crop plant amenable to genetic modification—carries the potential to provide farmers growing a wide range of crops with sustained economic benefits. Moreover, this increase in productivity can help meet rising global food demand without the need for expansions in agricultural land. This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project aims to meet the need for novel traits that increase crop yield without an associated increase in nutrient demand. To accomplish this, the project will leverage a technology that enhances respiration in response to light. This technology has already been shown to be functional and impart benefits at the cellular and organism levels in animal models; the aim of this project is to build on this work by demonstrating a proof-of-concept for use of the technology in plants. The technology will first be introduced into a model plant system and evaluated for functionality at the cellular level. Benefits to plant growth and development as a result of the technology will then be evaluated. Ultimately, this project aims to show that the use of the technology imparts benefits to a range of critical plant growth and development parameters. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.