Harnessing the power of the microbiome to protect hydroponic crops from disease

面对气候危机、土壤退化、水资源短缺和人口/土地利用压力，水培正在蓬勃发展。与传统农业相比，水培农业能够在全球范围内、全年、高生产力、无土壤、气候适应性强的情况下生长新鲜农产品，减少土地使用、水、农药和化肥的消耗，减少碳排放。然而，与传统农业相比，水培农业带来了两个重大的操作挑战：(1)水培作物容易受到水媒病原体的影响。由于水在水培系统中循环，并连接所有植物，因此水传播的疾病很容易传播，并可能摧毁整个农作物。此外，无土农业消除了在土壤中生长的植物微生物区系中的大多数微生物。最近的研究表明，许多这些缺失的微生物赋予作物抗病能力，它们的缺失可能会导致灾难性的疫情爆发。在水培生菜中，高达30%的全球作物因根病而损失。(Ii)由于加热和制冷负荷、补充的人工照明和循环泵，能源消耗很高。与常规栽培的生菜相比，水培生菜的产量是传统栽培生菜的11倍，但需要的能量是传统栽培生菜的82倍。能源成本占水培农业成本的40%；这一数字只因价格不稳定和能源危机而加剧，威胁到种植者的经济生存能力。这两个挑战是内在联系的，因为高作物损失会导致非生产性能源消耗。Concert Bio是一家由Paul Rutten MBA博士(合成生物学家；牛津大学植物-微生物相互作用博士；企业家优先)于2021年创立的初创企业(英国中小企业)。我们正在为水培种植者开发一个全栈微生物组优化平台，它将基于测序的监测与益生菌干预相结合，通过提高产量和增强抗病能力，最大限度地提高可持续的水培作物生产，并最大限度地减少浪费的运营成本。通过Smart Funding，我们将利用我们基于测序的监测，开发世界上第一个赋予水培生菜抗病能力的益生菌。

Facing a climate crisis, soil degradation, water scarcity and population/land use pressures, hydroponics is booming. Hydroponic farming enables worldwide, year-round, high-productivity, soil-less, climate-resilient growth of fresh produce, with reduced land use, water, pesticide, and fertiliser consumption, reducing carbon emissions compared to traditional agriculture.However, compared to traditional farming, hydroponic farming introduces two significant operational challenges:(i) Hydroponic crops are susceptible to water-borne pathogens. Since water is recirculated within the hydroponic system and connects all the plants, water-borne diseases spread easily and can destroy entire crops. Furthermore, soil-less farming eliminates most of the microbes found in the microbiota of plants grown in soil. Recent work has shown that many of these missing microbes confer crop disease resistance, and their absence can make outbreaks catastrophic. In hydroponic lettuce, up to 30% of the global crop is lost to root diseases.(ii) Energy consumption is high because of heating and cooling loads, supplemental artificial lighting, and circulating pumps. Compared to conventionally farmed lettuce, hydroponic lettuce has 11 times higher yields, but requires 82 times more energy. Energy costs contribute up to 40% of hydroponic farm costs; this figure is only exacerbated by price instability and the energy crisis, threatening economic viability for growers.These two challenges are intrinsically linked since high crop losses drive unproductive energy consumption.Concert Bio is a start-up (UK SME) founded in 2021 by Dr Paul Rutten MBA (synthetic biologist; PhD in plant-microbe interactions from the University of Oxford; Entrepreneur First). We are developing a full-stack microbiome optimisation platform for hydroponic growers, which combines sequencing-based monitoring with probiotic interventions to maximise sustainable hydroponic crop production and minimise wasted operational costs through improving yield and increasing disease resistance.With Smart funding, we will leverage our sequencing-based monitoring to develop the world's first probiotic to confer disease resistance in hydroponic lettuce.