Exploring Mobile Endophytic Microbes in a World of Immobile Plant Cells

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Higher organisms like humans and plants are inhabited by a huge diversity of microbes. This is a hidden world waiting to be discovered. Throughout evolution, bacteria represented an opportunity for higher organisms to rapidly acquire new traits by forming stable relationships with these simple but clever forms of life. The opportunities to explore the microbes that inhabit plants may be especially profound. Why? Plant cells cannot move, locked in by walls, which limits their ability to seek distant pathogens. By contrast, animal cells can move, and this mobility allowed for the evolution of immunity cells (e.g. white blood cells) that can search mory of past threats? If supported, these concepts represent new textbook paradigms in our understanding of the life strategies of plants. We believe breakthroughs in these questions, particularly those most useful for protecting global food production, will come from examining the ancient crops of indigenous peoples including from the Quebec Mi'kmaq First Nations People, & the wild relatives they selected from, thousands of years ago, since such crops were bred/evolved without chemical pesticides or fertilizers and thus may be especially dependent on their microbial partners for beneficial traits. Established companies and start-ups in Canada and around the world are investing billions of dollars with the goal of coating microbes onto seeds or spraying them in the field. The hope is that such microbes will replace/reduce pesticides, fungicides, and chemical fertilizers, and mitigate drought & combat climate change. The results of this proposal may thus lead to new innovations to help Canadian farmers and the world's 2 billion indigenous peoples who rely on agriculture, while making Canada a pioneer in this emerging industry. The project will equitably recruit students to train them to become the next generation of leaders that will explore and harvest benefits from this hidden world.