Investigations of a microbial community improving plant access to nutrients and overall growth

世纪以来，我们已经知道一些微生物与植物根系相关并促进植物生长。在过去的十年里，我们逐渐认识到，所有作物的根系都有一个受调节的微生物群体--植物微生物组。植物微生物组现在正在作为作物管理输入进行采样。有百年历史的大豆接种剂行业是这方面的典范：一种非常便宜的产品被应用于大面积的土地，减少了氮肥的施用，减少了温室气体排放、水道富营养化和地下水污染。人们对使用“生物制剂”作为减少农业环境足迹的一种方式越来越感兴趣。EVL开发了一套植物相关细菌，可以改善作物的生长，并可以与肥料一起使用。我们建议提高对这些菌株的作用模式的理解。这将包括确定这些微生物产生的植物激素或植物激素类似物，能够刺激植物生长的蛋白质以及这些物质在产生微生物的肉汤中（在细胞被去除后）促进植物生长的能力。后者可能导致最终的无细胞产品EVL已经做出了一些努力，并了解这些微生物财团的作用机制，但它没有研究专业知识或设施，以允许提出的研究;与麦吉尔的史密斯实验室的关系将克服这一点。这项工作将提高加拿大农业的可持续性和经济性，并使加拿大在生物制品的农业应用方面进一步领先。这项工作将提供对微生物菌株增加植物生长的机制的更深入的理解，从而导致EVL Inc和麦吉尔大学之间更广泛的合作;这将允许进一步利用生物制剂和开发该领域的新产品。

We have known that some microbes associate with plant roots and improve plant growth for over a century.Over the last decade we have come to appreciate that there is a regulated population of microbes associatedwith the roots of all crop plants - the phytomicrobiome. The phytomicrobiome is now being sampled as cropmanagement input. The century-old soybean inoculant industry is the paradigm for this: a very inexpensiveproduct is applied on large land areas and reduces the application of nitrogen fertilizer, reducing greenhousegas emissions, waterway eutrophication and groundwater contamination. There is a growing interest in the useof "biologicals" as a way to reduce agriculture's environmental footprint. EVL has developed a set ofplant-associated bacteria that improves the growth of crop plants and can be applied with fertilizers. Wepropose to improve understanding of the mode of action for these strains. This will consist of determiningproduction, by these microbes, of plant hormones or plant hormone analogues, proteins able to stimulate plantgrowth and the ability of these materials in the broth in which the microbes were produced (after the cells wereremoved) to enhance plant growth. The latter could lead to an eventual cell free product EVL has made someeffort and understanding the mechanism of action of these microbes consortium however it does not have theresearch expertise or facilities to allow the research proposed; a relationship with the Smith lab at McGill willovercome this. This work will improve the sustainability and economics of Canadian agricultural and giveCanada further leadership in the agricultural application of biologicals. The work will provide a deeperunderstanding of mechanisms by which the microbe strains increase plant growth, leading to a broadercollaboration between EVL Inc and McGill University; one that will allow further utilization of biologicals andthe development of new products in this area.