SBIR Phase I: Development of a novel bioprotectant with fungicidal and biostimulant properties

SBIR一期项目的广泛影响将是开发一种作物保护剂，减少对环境的负面影响，提高作物总产量。许多常见的粮食作物，包括西红柿和辣椒，都极易受到真菌污染；这些生物对目前广泛使用的化学农药迅速产生抗药性。该项目的目的是开发和测试一种由有益真菌组成的新型生物杀菌剂，以保护植物免受各种疾病和瘟疫的侵害。这种解决方案不会对环境造成危害，并提供了一种管理耐农药病原体的方法，这在农业市场上花费了大约100亿美元。拟议中的项目将针对全国各地常见的多种土壤、作物和病原体优化生物杀菌剂。将进行一系列实验室试验，以确定溶液的最佳组成。拟议的项目包括设计一种有效的生物保护剂和生物刺激剂，由两种不同的木霉菌株组成，以提供对有害真菌和细菌的增强保护作用，并具有促进植物健康和提高作物总产量的额外好处。该项目将开发混合菌株生物杀菌剂的新配方，以提供最大的应用灵活性，储存和交付的稳定性，以及在新的和未经证实的植物、土壤和生长条件组合中测试和优化其功效。生物保护剂抗真菌的优点已经在初步实验中得到证实，但仅限于作物和土壤的有限组合。本项目将对相关环境进行测试。此外，以前对木霉的干燥配方进行了测试，因此拟议的研究将侧重于两个关键目标：(i)证明在新环境下的功效和（ii）开发稳定的液体配方。为此目的，将在各种土壤、作物和病原体上测试广泛的配方基质。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this SBIR Phase I project will be in developing a crop protective agent that reduces negative environmental impacts and improves overall crop yield. Many common food crops, including tomatoes and peppers, are highly susceptible to fungal contamination; these organisms are rapidly developing resistance to the chemical pesticides widely used today. The objective of this project is to develop and test a new biofungicide consisting of beneficial fungi to protect plants from variety of diseases and plagues. This solution does not cause harm to the environment and offers a way to manage pesticide-resistant pathogens, which cost approximately $10 billion in the farming market. The proposed project will optimize the biofungicide for the many types of soils, crops and pathogens common across the country. A series of laboratory tests will be conducted to determine the optimal composition of the solution. The proposed project involves designing an effective bioprotectant and biostimulant, consisting of two different Trichoderma strains, to provide enhanced protective effects against harmful fungi and bacteria, with the added benefit of boosting plant health and improving overall crop yield. This project will develop new formulations of the blended strain biofungicide to provide maximum flexibility in their application, stability for storage and delivery, as well as testing and optimizing their efficacy in new and unproven combinations of plants, soils and growing conditions. The merits of the bioprotectant anti-fungal have already been demonstrated in preliminary experiments, but only for limited combinations of crops and soils. Relevant environments will be tested in this project. Additionally, previous tests have been conducted with dry formulations of Trichoderma, and thus the proposed research will focus on the two key objectives of (i) proving efficacy in new contexts and (ii) developing stable liquid formulations. To this end, a wide matrix of formulations will be tested with a variety of soils, crops and pathogens.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.