NOVEMBER 2017 GERMINATION.CA 49 Advancements in previously existing technologies allow scientists to study the complex symbiotic relationships between the soil biome and plant root systems. Seed companies, tech startups and commodity groups are working inde- pendently and through partnerships to learn more about these relation- ships and how they can be used to influence higher yields. In turn, these collaborations bring to market industry revolutionizing soil, crop and seed management solutions. Farmers are also taking notice of the important role healthy soils play in their input costs and overall return on investment. “If you had asked (a farmer) even five years ago, ‘What’s a microorgan- ism or what are ag-biologicals and how do they influence soil health?’ you were met with the comment that those things weren’t proven science,” says Pete Hayes, vice president of marketing for ABM, a microbiologi- cal company that works to provide yield-improving biological solutions. “That’s not the case today. Science has proven what we and other com- panies are doing, and farmers have responded to that.” With its sights on improvement goals within the major U.S. food crops of corn, soybeans, wheat and sorghum, BioConsortia Inc., has developed an Advanced Microbial Selection (AMS) process that they believe will revolutionize seed treat- ment, drench and granule application. AMS allows BioConsortia researchers to discover multiple ben- eficial microbes associated with one plant during one growing season. The premise of this technology, says CEO Marcus Meadows-Smith, lies in the microbe selection process, itself. “We operate more like plant breeders than microbiologists,” Meadows-Smith says. By starting thousands of seeds in growth chambers and changing only the plant microbiome, researchers are able to screen through hundreds of thousands of microbes, and combina- tions of microbes, in a rapid manner. Those that are able to perform well are those that have attracted and are colonized by beneficial microbes. BioConsortia researchers have found that improved plant performance usually is not a single microbe help- ing the plant tolerate a particular stressor but several microbes per- forming different and complementary functions with the plant. Some micro- bial teams may stimulate the plant to grow bigger roots during periods of drought stress, while others may turn on the plants own genes that are associated with water stress tolerance. This concept of selecting multiple microbes, rather than one by one, has lessened the challenge of iden- tifying collaborative microbes when introduced together. “Many times when singly selected microbes are introduced together, it is found that they are antagonistic of one another and will not work together,” Meadows-Smith says. “Our teams of microbes are discovered on a single high performing plant, so we know that they are compatible.”