HORTICULTURE: Biological control of potato scab using natural Pseudomonas strains

植物病害在田间和储存，特别是在加工部门造成重大作物损失。虽然有些疾病可以用化学农药加以控制，但这些疾病对环境的破坏非常大，造成生物多样性的巨大损失，并大大增加了碳排放。许多农药正以环保为由从市场上撤出，几乎没有产品可以取代它们。对于越来越多的作物病害，几乎没有有效的农药可用。因此，迫切需要开发可持续的方法来控制作物病原体。一种很有希望的农作物病原体治疗方法是一组自然产生的细菌，称为假单胞菌，它们生活在植物根部周围的土壤中。这些与植物相关的友好细菌可以通过产生一系列生物活性分子来抑制病原体和对抗植物感染，这一过程被称为生物防治。土壤假单胞菌及其分泌的分子在作物病害的可持续防治中具有很大的应用潜力。为此，我们最近开展了与马铃薯田土壤相关的生物防治细菌的广泛研究，并在温室试验中鉴定出了几种能有效抑制马铃薯常见赤霉病的假单胞菌菌株。我们的生物防治细菌是一种有效的、环保的治疗普通结痂的有希望的候选者。然而，为了有效地利用它们，我们首先需要了解我们的温室生物防治结果是否会转化为田间环境中有效的疾病抑制。为了确保我们的假单胞菌生物防治菌株代表了作物保护的环境可持续选择，研究与马铃薯田土壤相关的本地微生物群落对添加生物防治细菌处理的反应也很重要。我们预计，我们的菌株对土壤微生物群的破坏要比传统化学农药小得多，但这还有待证实。我们将与主要马铃薯种植商Branston和农业生物技术公司B-hive合作，对最有希望的生物防治假单胞菌菌株进行田间试验，以评估它们预防与普通痂病相关的产量和作物质量损失的能力。同时，我们将对正在种植的马铃薯植株周围的土壤进行采样，并使用基于测序的方法来确定生物防治菌株处理如何影响田间土壤的微生物学。最后，我们将把假单胞菌的生物防治研究从田间扩展到作物储藏。我们将用我们的生物防治假单胞菌菌株处理收获的马铃薯作物，并评估它们在长时间储存马铃薯中防止产量损失的能力。这项研究的结果将支持我们正在进行的开发有效的、环境友好的作物农药处理替代品的努力，并将推进我们对土壤微生物群落如何响应植物生长和引入新微生物物种的理解。

Plant diseases cause significant crop losses in both the field and in storage, particularly within the processing sector. While some diseases can be controlled by chemical pesticides, these can be very damaging to the environment, causing massive losses in biodiversity and significant contributions to carbon emissions. Many pesticides are being withdrawn from the market on environmental grounds, and few products exist to take their place. For a growing number of crop diseases, few if any effective pesticides are available. There is therefore an urgent need to develop sustainable methods to control crop pathogens. A promising source of treatments for crop pathogens are a group of naturally-occurring bacteria called Pseudomonas that live in the soil surrounding plant roots. These plant-associated, friendly bacteria can suppress pathogens and fight plant infections by producing an array of bioactive molecules, a process called biocontrol. Soil Pseudomonas bacteria and the secreted molecules they produce have great potential for use in sustainable control of crop diseases. To this end, we recently conducted an extensive study of the biocontrol bacteria associated with potato field soil, and identified several Pseudomonas strains that could effectively suppress the potato disease Common Scab in greenhouse experiments. Our biocontrol bugs are promising candidates for an effective, environmentally friendly treatment for common scab. However, to use them effectively we first need to understand whether our greenhouse biocontrol results will translate into effective disease suppression in a field environment. To ensure that our Pseudomonas biocontrol strains represent an environmentally sustainable option for crop protection, it is also important to examine how the native microbial community associated with potato field soil responds to the addition of a biocontrol bacterial treatment. We anticipate that our strains will disrupt the soil microbiome much less than conventional chemical pesticides, but this remains to be proven. In partnership with the major potato grower Branston and the agricultural biotechnology company B-hive, we will carry out field trials with our most promising biocontrol Pseudomonas strains to assess their ability to prevent the yield and crop quality losses associated with Common Scab. In parallel, we will sample the soil surrounding our growing potato plants, and use a sequencing based method to determine how biocontrol strain treatments affect the microbiology of the field soil. Finally, we will extend our study of Pseudomonas biocontrol from the field to crop storage. We will treat harvested potato crops with our biocontrol Pseudomonas strains, and assess their ability to prevent yield losses in stored potatoes over an extended period. The results of this study will support our ongoing efforts to develop effective, environmentally friendly alternatives to crop pesticide treatments, and will advance our understanding of how the soil microbial community responds to plant growth and the introduction of new microbial species.