SBIR Phase I: Microbiome for improving salt stress tolerance in crops

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是提供一种创新的方法，利用新的种子处理来提高作物的耐受性。为了养活不断增长的世界人口(到2050年估计为98亿)，全球粮食产量必须增加70%，同时减少对土地利用、环境和生态系统的影响。然而，高盐度条件和干旱降低了作物的潜在产量；此外，过度使用化肥扰乱了全球氮磷循环，减少了生物多样性，并造成了水生污染。该项目将开发一种通过提高抗逆性和获取养分来促进作物生长的技术。采用更可持续的农业做法可以帮助农民提高盈利能力和降低成本。该项目将为全球5.7亿个农场的粮食生产提供有效的解决方案。通过提高作物产量，该项目可能有助于解决美国因非生产性农田而造成的每年超过270亿美元的经济损失。拟议的项目将产生创新的基于内生植物的种子处理配方，以提高对非生物胁迫的耐受性。种子将涂上高度特化的安全(非致病)内生细菌和酵母菌株的混合物，在配方中使用选定的渗透保护剂和益生元，以提高选定微生物的生存能力和效率。生物接种剂将提高作物对盐分胁迫的耐受性，同时支持固氮和矿质养分的获取。该项目将验证这种方法在精选蔬菜种子处理上的可行性。首先，将致力于获得与杀菌剂和杀虫剂处理同时大规模使用时具有高货架期的稳定种子处理配方。生物接种剂配方提高耐盐性的能力将在温室中得到验证。最后，最优配方的性能将在高盐度条件下的小型田间试验中进行测试，以验证其提高作物产量和质量的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to provide an innovative approach to improve crop tolerance using novel seed treatments. To feed the growing world population (estimated 9.8 billion by 2050), global food production must increase by 70%, while reducing impact on land use, the environment, and ecosystems. However, high salinity conditions and drought have reduced the potential yield of crops; furthermore, the excessive application of fertilizers is disrupting global nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, reducing biodiversity, and causing aquatic pollution. This project will develop a technology to promote crop growth through improved stress tolerance and nutrient acquisition. The adoption of more sustainable agricultural practices could help farmers in increasing their profitability and reduce costs. This project will offer an effective solution to 570 million farms around the world for food production. By improving crop yield, the project could help address the economic loss of more than $27 billion/year in the US due to unproductive farmland. The proposed project will generate innovative endophyte-based formulations for seed treatments to improve tolerance to abiotic stress. Seeds will be coated with a mixture of highly characterized safe (non-pathogenic) endophytic bacteria and yeast strains in formulation with selected osmoprotectants and prebiotics that improve the survivability and efficacy of the selected microbes. The bio-inoculants will improve crop tolerance to salinity stress while supporting nitrogen fixation and mineral nutrient acquisition. This project will validate the feasibility of this approach on treatments for selected vegetable seeds. First efforts will be dedicated to obtaining stable seed treatment formulations with a high shelf-life when used at scale in parallel with fungicide and insecticide treatments. The ability of bio-inoculant formulations to increase tolerance to salinity will be validated in the greenhouse. Finally, the performance of the most optimal formulation will be tested in a small field trial under high salinity conditions to validate its ability to increase crop yield and quality.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.