SBIR Phase I: Development of a novel bioprotectant with fungicidal and biostimulant properties

SBIR第一阶段项目的更广泛影响将是开发一种作物保护剂，减少对环境的负面影响，提高作物的整体产量。许多常见的粮食作物，包括西红柿和辣椒，对真菌污染非常敏感;这些生物体正在迅速发展对当今广泛使用的化学农药的抗性。 本项目的目的是开发和测试一种由有益真菌组成的新型生物杀菌剂，以保护植物免受各种疾病和瘟疫的侵害。这种解决方案不会对环境造成危害，并提供了一种管理耐农药病原体的方法，这在农业市场上花费了大约100亿美元。拟议的项目将优化生物杀真菌剂，用于全国各地常见的许多类型的土壤，作物和病原体。将进行一系列实验室测试以确定溶液的最佳组成。拟议的项目涉及设计一种有效的生物保护剂和生物刺激剂，由两种不同的木霉菌株组成，以增强对有害真菌和细菌的保护作用，并增加促进植物健康和提高整体作物产量的好处。该项目将开发混合菌株生物杀真菌剂的新配方，以提供其应用的最大灵活性，储存和交付的稳定性，以及测试和优化其在植物，土壤和生长条件的新的和未经证实的组合中的功效。生物保护剂抗真菌的优点已经在初步实验中得到证实，但仅限于作物和土壤的有限组合。 本项目将对相关环境进行测试。 此外，以前的测试已经用木霉的干制剂进行，因此拟议的研究将集中在两个关键目标上：（i）证明在新环境中的功效和（ii）开发稳定的液体制剂。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this SBIR Phase I project will be in developing a crop protective agent that reduces negative environmental impacts and improves overall crop yield. Many common food crops, including tomatoes and peppers, are highly susceptible to fungal contamination; these organisms are rapidly developing resistance to the chemical pesticides widely used today. The objective of this project is to develop and test a new biofungicide consisting of beneficial fungi to protect plants from variety of diseases and plagues. This solution does not cause harm to the environment and offers a way to manage pesticide-resistant pathogens, which cost approximately $10 billion in the farming market. The proposed project will optimize the biofungicide for the many types of soils, crops and pathogens common across the country. A series of laboratory tests will be conducted to determine the optimal composition of the solution. The proposed project involves designing an effective bioprotectant and biostimulant, consisting of two different Trichoderma strains, to provide enhanced protective effects against harmful fungi and bacteria, with the added benefit of boosting plant health and improving overall crop yield. This project will develop new formulations of the blended strain biofungicide to provide maximum flexibility in their application, stability for storage and delivery, as well as testing and optimizing their efficacy in new and unproven combinations of plants, soils and growing conditions. The merits of the bioprotectant anti-fungal have already been demonstrated in preliminary experiments, but only for limited combinations of crops and soils. Relevant environments will be tested in this project. Additionally, previous tests have been conducted with dry formulations of Trichoderma, and thus the proposed research will focus on the two key objectives of (i) proving efficacy in new contexts and (ii) developing stable liquid formulations. To this end, a wide matrix of formulations will be tested with a variety of soils, crops and pathogens.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.