HORTICULTURE: Biological control of potato scab using natural Pseudomonas strains

植物病害在田间和储藏中造成重大作物损失，特别是在加工部门。虽然一些疾病可以通过化学杀虫剂控制，但这些疾病可能对环境造成严重破坏，导致生物多样性的大量损失和碳排放的重大贡献。许多杀虫剂因环境原因而退出市场，取而代之的产品寥寥无几。对于越来越多的作物病害，几乎没有有效的杀虫剂。因此，迫切需要开发可持续的方法来控制作物病原体。作物病原体治疗的一个有希望的来源是一组称为假单胞菌的天然细菌，它们生活在植物根部周围的土壤中。这些与植物相关的友好细菌可以通过产生一系列生物活性分子来抑制病原体并对抗植物感染，这一过程称为生物防治。土壤假单胞菌及其分泌的分子在作物病害的可持续控制中具有巨大的应用潜力。为此，我们最近进行了广泛的研究与马铃薯田间土壤的生防细菌，并确定了几个假单胞菌菌株，可以有效地抑制马铃薯疮痂病在温室实验。我们的生物控制错误是一个有效的，环境友好的治疗常见的疮痂有希望的候选人。然而，为了有效地使用它们，我们首先需要了解我们的温室生物防治结果是否会转化为田间环境中有效的疾病抑制。为了确保我们的假单胞菌生物防治菌株代表作物保护的环境可持续选择，研究与马铃薯田间土壤相关的天然微生物群落如何响应添加生物防治细菌处理也很重要。我们预计，我们的菌株对土壤微生物组的破坏比传统化学农药要小得多，但这仍有待证明。我们将与主要的马铃薯种植商Branston和农业生物技术公司B-hive合作，对我们最有前途的生物防治假单胞菌菌株进行田间试验，以评估它们预防与普通赤霉病相关的产量和作物质量损失的能力。与此同时，我们将对我们种植的马铃薯植物周围的土壤进行采样，并使用基于测序的方法来确定生物控制菌株处理如何影响田间土壤的微生物学。最后，我们将把假单胞菌生物防治的研究从田间扩展到作物储藏。我们将用我们的生防假单胞菌菌株处理收获的马铃薯作物，并评估它们在长时间储存马铃薯中防止产量损失的能力。这项研究的结果将支持我们正在进行的努力，以开发有效的，环境友好的替代作物农药处理，并将推进我们对土壤微生物群落如何响应植物生长和引入新的微生物物种的理解。

Plant diseases cause significant crop losses in both the field and in storage, particularly within the processing sector. While some diseases can be controlled by chemical pesticides, these can be very damaging to the environment, causing massive losses in biodiversity and significant contributions to carbon emissions. Many pesticides are being withdrawn from the market on environmental grounds, and few products exist to take their place. For a growing number of crop diseases, few if any effective pesticides are available. There is therefore an urgent need to develop sustainable methods to control crop pathogens. A promising source of treatments for crop pathogens are a group of naturally-occurring bacteria called Pseudomonas that live in the soil surrounding plant roots. These plant-associated, friendly bacteria can suppress pathogens and fight plant infections by producing an array of bioactive molecules, a process called biocontrol. Soil Pseudomonas bacteria and the secreted molecules they produce have great potential for use in sustainable control of crop diseases. To this end, we recently conducted an extensive study of the biocontrol bacteria associated with potato field soil, and identified several Pseudomonas strains that could effectively suppress the potato disease Common Scab in greenhouse experiments. Our biocontrol bugs are promising candidates for an effective, environmentally friendly treatment for common scab. However, to use them effectively we first need to understand whether our greenhouse biocontrol results will translate into effective disease suppression in a field environment. To ensure that our Pseudomonas biocontrol strains represent an environmentally sustainable option for crop protection, it is also important to examine how the native microbial community associated with potato field soil responds to the addition of a biocontrol bacterial treatment. We anticipate that our strains will disrupt the soil microbiome much less than conventional chemical pesticides, but this remains to be proven. In partnership with the major potato grower Branston and the agricultural biotechnology company B-hive, we will carry out field trials with our most promising biocontrol Pseudomonas strains to assess their ability to prevent the yield and crop quality losses associated with Common Scab. In parallel, we will sample the soil surrounding our growing potato plants, and use a sequencing based method to determine how biocontrol strain treatments affect the microbiology of the field soil. Finally, we will extend our study of Pseudomonas biocontrol from the field to crop storage. We will treat harvested potato crops with our biocontrol Pseudomonas strains, and assess their ability to prevent yield losses in stored potatoes over an extended period. The results of this study will support our ongoing efforts to develop effective, environmentally friendly alternatives to crop pesticide treatments, and will advance our understanding of how the soil microbial community responds to plant growth and the introduction of new microbial species.