Investigating the mode of action of novel eco-friendly cell-free microbial bioproducts for improving plant growth, productivity and stress tolerance

TerraBioGen（TBG）Technologies是一家位于不列颠哥伦比亚省伯纳比的小型农业生物技术公司，正在开发基于一组独特的天然微生物产生的代谢物和信号分子的农业生物产品。在不同生长条件下对不同植物物种的早期研究表明，在高、低施肥制度以及水分胁迫条件下，施用TerraBioGen的产品可提高种子发芽和出苗率，增强根系，促进植物生长和健康，提高作物产量和作物质量。为了取得商业成功，需要代谢物的科学基础和作用模式，拟议的研究是TerraBioGen研究人员与圭尔夫大学罗斯坦实验室合作，以解开TerraBioGen生物产品的作用模式。TerraBioGen的研究人员将研究他们已经确定的产生生长促进因子的微生物菌株，并开发规模化生产的方法，分离和鉴定生物活性材料，并对这些材料进行初步测试以促进植物生长。罗斯坦实验室将研究这些粗品以及纯的无细胞代谢产物在应激和非应激条件下对玉米生长的影响。他们将研究添加这些化合物是否能提高植物有效利用水和养分的能力。此外，他们将使用基因组分析来分析所有基因的表达，以了解这些化合物如何影响作物生长。这项工作可以被TerraBioGen用于他们的技术开发，以评估如何以及何时将它们应用于作物植物，以及识别新的生物活性化合物。这方面的成功将是他们成功生产产品的根本，这些产品可以以环境敏感的方式改善加拿大的作物生产，并能够在国际市场上销售。

TerraBioGen (TBG) Technologies, a small agricultural biotechnology company based at Burnaby, British Columbia are developing agricultural bioproducts based on metabolites and signal molecules produced by a unique group of naturally occurring microorganisms. Early studies with different plant species under varied growth conditions showed that application of TerraBioGen's products improved seed germination and seedling emergence, imparted a robust root system, enhanced plant growth and health and increased crop yield and crop quality under high and low fertilizer regimes as well as under water stress conditions. For commercial success, the scientific basis and modes of action of metabolites are needed and the proposed research is a collaboration between TerraBioGen researchers and with the Rothstein laboratory at the University of Guelph to unravel the modes of action of TerraBioGen's bioproducts. The TerraBioGen researchers will be studying microbial strains that they have identified that produce the growth promoting factors and developing methods for scaling production, isolating and identifying the bioactive materials and doing initial tests on these for plant growth enhancement. The Rothstein laboratory will study the effect of these crude as well as pure cell-free metabolic products on growth in corn in both stress and non-stress conditions. They will study whether the addition of these compounds improves the plants ability to use water and nutrients efficiently. In addition, they will analyze the expression of all of the genes using genomic analysis to understand how these compounds work to effect crop growth. This work can be used by TerraBioGen for the development of their technology to assess how and when they should be applied to crop plants as well as to identify new bioactive compounds. Success in this will be fundamental for their success in producing products that can improve Canadian crop production in an environmentally sensitive fashion as well as being able to sell these in the international markets.