I-Corps: Commercialization of Optimized Microbial Solutions

磷对作物产量的最大化至关重要，因为它是植物光合作用和ATP生产所必需的营养物质，但在大多数农业土壤中磷的有效性是有限的。磷矿开采用于化肥是一种有限的资源，目前所有的磷肥管理策略都非常低效。例如，土壤中70%-90%的磷几乎立即就不能被植物吸收。因此，即使在相对富含磷和/或大量施肥的土壤中，植物有效磷也可能是有限的。农民还在寻找以更低的成本增加植物养分吸收和作物产量的方法。S提出的这项技术提供了一种创新的方法，通过最大限度地从土壤中吸收植物养分，同时减少化肥投入，提供了一种创新的方法来满足农民S的需求。微生物在溶解矿物质P从而使其可供植物利用的过程中发挥着关键作用。虽然提高微生物溶磷的潜力很大，但开发微生物溶液的进展在很大程度上局限于通过过时的培养技术鉴定单个菌株，尽管有强有力的证据表明，需要微生物联合体来最大限度地提高磷的溶出率。该项目的主要目标是促进优化的溶磷微生物联合体的开发和商业化。具体地说，该团队将证明：他们的新方法可以快速识别优化的联合体；他们的专有选择介质产生了新的解磷微生物，与之前识别的菌株相比，这些微生物在使土壤磷可供植物利用方面具有优势。该项目团队有兴趣开发一家初创公司，将这一发现转化为商业产品。他们将进行市场研究，包括与潜在用户(作物生产者)和客户(农业公司)进行广泛访谈，以确定价值主张，并探索业务计划选择和潜在的资金来源。

Phosphorus (P) is critical for maximizing crop yields because it is an essential nutrient for plant photosynthesis and ATP production, but P availability is limited in most agricultural soils. Rock phosphate mined for fertilizer is a finite resource, and all current P application management strategies are highly inefficient. For instance, 70-90% of P applied to soils can become almost immediately unavailable for plant uptake. As a result, plant-available P can be limiting even in soils that are relatively P-rich and/or heavily fertilized. Farmers are also looking for ways to increase plant nutrient uptake and crop yields with lower cost. The team?s proposed technology provides an innovative approach that can meet these farmer?s needs by maximizing plant nutrient uptake from the soil while allowing for reduced fertilizer inputs.Microbes play a critical role in solubilizing mineral P so that it is available to plants. While there is great potential to improve microbial P solubilization, progress in developing microbial solutions has been largely limited to the identification of single strains through outdated culturing techniques, despite strong demonstrated evidence that microbial consortia are required to maximize P solubilization rates. The primary objective of this project is to advance the development and commercialization of optimized phosphorus (P)-solubilizing microbial consortia. Specifically, the team will demonstrate that: their novel approach rapidly identifies optimized consortia; and their proprietary selection media yields novel P solubilizing microbes that are superior at making soil P available to plants compared to previously identified strains. The project team is interested in developing a start-up company to translate this discovery into a commercial product. They will conduct market research, including extensive interviews with potential users (crop producers) and clients (agricultural corporations) to define value propositions, as well as explore business plan options and potential funding sources.