SBIR Phase I: Engineering Seed Microenvironment

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是在农业粮食生产系统中建立气候适应能力和促进低碳排放。该公司寻求开发一种种子包衣技术，可以延长植物生长促进细菌（PGPB）的保质期，也被称为生物肥料。这种包膜种子提高了作物产量和产量，并减少了农业投入（如水、能源、肥料、土地使用和农药）。这种独特的涂层可以减轻非生物植物的压力，如土壤盐度和干旱，使种子更具气候适应性。该项目将提供工具，使以微生物为基础的农业公司更容易建立和更广泛地部署他们的技术。目前的种子包衣和微生物保存技术一般是从不可再生的石油化工产品中发展起来的。这些种子涂层在环境中极难降解，最终形成污染水和土地系统的微塑料。由于这些问题，政策制定者正在禁止在食品和农业工业中使用石油基种子包衣。提出的种子包衣技术可以填补这一空白，因为它使用可生物降解的，天然衍生的，无毒的材料。气候变化、土壤退化和土壤盐碱化是导致世界各地重大社会问题的新问题。这些社会问题包括对水、能源和粮食安全的影响（WEFS）。农业领域的科学发现可能为缓解这些相关社会问题的创新技术解决方案提供信息。该项目将设计种子微环境，利用生物聚合物封装、保存和输送PGPB。这项工作可能会提高微生物和养分输送的精度，并通过生物肥料的定向输送和替代来降低合成肥料对环境的影响。技术研究和开发将侧重于生物聚合物种子包衣的开发及其在水合和无水种子状态下的功效测试。这些实验还将评估种子对真菌和线虫等非生物压力源的保护能力。该项目旨在在实验室条件下进行初步实验，随后期望进行大规模的实地研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in building climate resilience and promoting lower carbon emissions in the agricultural food production system. The company seeks to develop a seed coating technology that can extend the shelf life of plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB), also known as biofertilizers. Such coated seeds boost crop yields and production, and reduce agricultural inputs (e.g. water, energy, fertilizers, land use, and pesticides). The unique coating could alleviate abiotic plant stressors such as soil salinity and drought, making the seeds more climate resilient. The project will provide tools that will make it easier for microbe-based agriculture companies to build and deploy their technologies more broadly. Current seed coating and microbe preservation technologies are generally developed from the non-renewable petrochemicals. These seed coatings are extremely hard to degrade in the environment, ultimately forming microplastics that pollute the water and land systems. Because of these problems, policy makers are banning petroleum-based seed coating usage in the Food and Agriculture industries. The proposed seed coating technology may fill in this gap as it uses biodegradable, naturally-derived, and non-toxic materials. Climate change, soil degradation, and soil salinization are emerging issues that have led to major societal problems around the world. These societal problems include impacts on water, energy, and food security (WEFS). Scientific discoveries in agriculture may inform innovative technological solutions that mitigate these pertinent societal issues. This project will engineer the seed microenvironment to encapsulate, preserve and deliver PGPB using biopolymers. The proposed work may increase precision in microbe and nutrient delivery, and lower the environmental impact of synthetic fertilizers through targeted delivery and substitution with biological fertilizers. The technical research and development will be focused on the development of biopolymer seed coatings and tests of their efficacy in hydrated and anhydrous seed states. The experiments will also assess the protective capabilities of seeds against abiotic stressors such as fungi and nematodes. The project aims to carry out initial experiments under laboratory conditions and subsequently expects to conduct large scale field studies.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.