Investigating the mode of action of novel eco-friendly cell-free microbial bioproducts for improving plant growth, productivity and stress tolerance

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TerraBioGen (TBG) Technologies, a small agricultural biotechnology company based at Burnaby, British Columbia are developing agricultural bioproducts based on metabolites and signal molecules produced by a unique group of naturally occurring microorganisms. Early studies with different plant species under varied growth conditions showed that application of TerraBioGen's products improved seed germination and seedling emergence, imparted a robust root system, enhanced plant growth and health and increased crop yield and crop quality under high and low fertilizer regimes as well as under water stress conditions. For commercial success, the scientific basis and modes of action of metabolites are needed and the proposed research is a collaboration between TerraBioGen researchers and with the Rothstein laboratory at the University of Guelph to unravel the modes of action of TerraBioGen's bioproducts. The TerraBioGen researchers will be studying microbial strains that they have identified that produce the growth promoting factors and developing methods for scaling production, isolating and identifying the bioactive materials and doing initial tests on these for plant growth enhancement. The Rothstein laboratory will study the effect of these crude as well as pure cell-free metabolic products on growth in corn in both stress and non-stress conditions. They will study whether the addition of these compounds improves the plants ability to use water and nutrients efficiently. In addition, they will analyze the expression of all of the genes using genomic analysis to understand how these compounds work to effect crop growth. This work can be used by TerraBioGen for the development of their technology to assess how and when they should be applied to crop plants as well as to identify new bioactive compounds. Success in this will be fundamental for their success in producing products that can improve Canadian crop production in an environmentally sensitive fashion as well as being able to sell these in the international markets.