Improving the Commercial Value of Anti-Fusarium Probiotics in Corn and Wheat By Rapid Breeding

加拿大西部农民有机会出口更多的小麦，加拿大东部农民有机会销售更多的玉米。其中一个挑战是由真菌病原体家族——镰刀菌（Fusarium graminearum sensu scricto, Fgss）引起的谷物疾病，它每年给加拿大农民造成5000万至3亿美元的损失。棉花会降低产量，但更糟的是，它会将危险的毒素分泌到谷物中。也许是由于气候变化，Fgss的爆发正在恶化。目前的杀菌剂和最好的作物基因结合在一起，并不能在严重爆发时完全控制这种疾病。一个有希望的解决方案是叠加第三种解决方案：益生菌。就像人类从益生菌中受益一样，农作物也可以。在杀菌剂喷雾中添加抗fgss益生菌（生物防治剂）可以完全抑制这些疾病，因为它们具有互补的作用模式。一种益生菌可以替代50%的杀菌剂，但可以作为季末喷雾一起使用，以节省拖拉机/燃料成本，这样就能收回成本。我们从小麦/玉米中提取了6种安全、有前景的季末细菌益生菌，可以对抗Fg，其中3种已经在最初的田间试验中显示出效果。它们是独特的，因为它们预先适应了Fgss传播的玉米/小麦组织。为了向前发展，私营部门告诉我们，益生菌必须非常有效，在各种环境中都是一致的，能够耐受复杂的杀菌剂配方，并且可以获得专利。我们已经开发了新的育种策略（FieldAdapt, Enhanced seek-and-kill）来进化益生菌以克服这些挑战。

There is an opportunity for Western Canadian farmers to export more wheat, and for Eastern Canadian farmers to sell more corn. One of the challenges are grain diseases caused by the fungal pathogen family, Fusarium graminearum sensu scricto (Fgss) which causes $50-$300 million in losses annually to Canadian farmers. Fgss decreases yield, but worse, secrete dangerous toxins into the grain. Fgss outbreaks are worsening, perhaps due to climate change. The current fungicides and best crop genetics, together, do not fully control the disease during severe outbreaks. One promising solution is to stack a third solution: probiotics. Just as humans benefit from probiotics, so can crops. Adding anti-Fgss probiotics (biocontrol agents) to fungicide sprays could completely suppress these diseases, as they have complementary modes of action. A probiotic that can replace 50% of the fungicide, but be delivered together as a late-season-spray to save tractor/fuel costs, would pay for itself. We have 6 safe, promising, late-season bacterial probiotics from wheat/corn that combat Fg, three of which have already shown efficacy in initial field trials. They are unique, because they are pre-adapted to the corn/wheat tissues through which Fgss spreads. To move forward, the private sector has told us that probiotics must be very potent, consistent across environments, tolerate complex fungicide formulations and be patentable. We have developed novel breeding strategies (FieldAdapt, Enhanced seek-and-kill) to evolve the probiotics to overcome these challenges.