The Oxford Martin School has awarded around £1 million each to four new interdisciplinary research programmes addressing major challenges in health, climate, food security and the environment.
The Oxford Martin Programme on Safer Antifungals starts from an unlikely source: tiny bdelloid rotifers. These microscopic animals have acquired thousands of genes from microbes that allow them to produce compounds that defend them against fungi. The researchers will investigate whether evolution has effectively selected some of these compounds for their ability to fight fungi without harming animals, potentially opening a new source of safer treatments at a time when fungal resistance is threatening crop protection and human health.
Fungal diseases destroy more than 20% of the world’s five major crops each year, enough food to feed around 1 billion people. The losses cost the global economy more than $200 billion annually, hitting livelihoods and economies that depend on crops. Farmers rely on fungicides to protect crops, but fungi can rapidly develop resistance to them, while some treatments can harm humans, pollinators and aquatic life. Replacing them is slow and costly.
Bdelloid rotifers offer an entirely new place to look for antifungals. These microscopic animals found in soil, moss and freshwater all over the world are remarkable survivors. They reproduce without males and can withstand extreme conditions, including complete desiccation and levels of radiation that are deadly to most animal life. Stranger still, over millions of years they have acquired thousands of genes from microbes and other organisms, including genes they appear to use in their own defence against fungal attack.
Rather than developing a single new fungicide, the programme aims to establish whether these microscopic animals could provide a repeatable source of safer antifungals. If the compounds prove effective and less harmful to animals, this unconventional approach could open a new route to developing crop treatments as resistance to existing fungicides grows.
To learn more about the programme visit the Oxford Matin School website here.
