Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
Page 49
Page 50
Page 51
Page 52
Page 53
Page 54
Page 55
Page 56
Page 57
Page 58
Page 59
Page 60
Page 61
Page 62
Page 63
Page 64
Page 65
Page 66
Page 67
Page 68
Page 69
Page 70
Page 71
Page 72
Page 73
Page 74
Page 75
Page 76
Page 77
Page 78
Page 79
Page 80
Page 81
Page 82
Page 83
Page 84
Page 85
Page 86
Page 87
Page 88
Page 89
Page 90
Page 91
Page 92
Page 93
Page 94
Page 95
Page 96
Page 97
Page 98
Page 99
Page 100
Page 101
Page 102
Page 103
Page 104
Page 105
Page 106
Page 107
Page 108
Page 109
Page 110
Page 111
Page 112
Page 113
Page 114
Page 115
Page 116
Page 117
Page 118
Page 119
Page 120
Page 121
Page 122
Page 123
Page 124
Page 125
Page 126
Page 127
Page 128
Page 129
Page 130
Page 131
Page 132
Page 133
Page 134
Page 135
Page 136
Page 137
Page 138
Page 139
Page 140
68 SEEDWORLD.COM DECEMBER 2015 The rhizobia then enter plant cells and convert atmospheric nitrogen which would be unusable by the plant into ammonium which is available to the plant. In exchange the soybean plants feed the bacteria. Its a very specific relationship that doesnt happen with other microbes says Matthew Doering research associate with XiteBio Technologies a Winnipeg Canada based biotechnology com- pany. And it keeps farmers from adding nitrogen to the soil in soybean-planting years. The bacteria is a cost-efficient and good way to capture nitro- gen necessary for those plants Doering says. Legumes that could form this symbiotic relationship had a distinct advantage over legumes or other types of plants that could not fix atmospheric nitrogen. And rhizobia that were able to attach to soybean roots had an advantage over microbes that were not feeding off plants. Other microbes increase the amount of soluble phosphorus available to plants. Phosphorus added to soil as fertilizer is soluble but as it comes into contact with soil moisture most of that phosphorus as much as 80 percent converts to an insoluble form making it unavailable to plants and at risk of moving with eroding soil into nearby water. Certain microbes such as Penicillium bilaii can be added to soil and attach to a plants root system. The microbe lives on the plant for the entirety of the growing season and sends compounds into the soil that release insoluble phosphate from the soil making it available to the plants. It helps a plant access some of this soil-bound phosphate Bletsky says. Phosphorus is a finite resource. As a farmer you can reduce your phosphate use or get more benefit from the phos- phate thats already in the soil. Much like rhizobia with soybeans there is evidence that some microbes could help corn fix nitrogen. Rhizobia is probably not the only crop or the only microbial that can fix nitrogen Shortell says. Some microbes are able to live on a grass plant instead of a legume. By having this in a grass plant we may be able to have corn fix nitrogen. Shortell adds that its also possible to simply feed specific microbes that are naturally occurring in fields giving them an edge over competitors. Were able to spike the system with what the microbes need and the output from those microbes is beneficial to the plant Shortell says. And there are still more microbes that are helping pro- tect against pests. Bacillus firmus is paired for example with Clothianidin an insecticide in Bayer CropSciences Poncho VOTiVO a seed treatment marketed as protecting against early season pests in corn soybeans and cotton. Meadows-Smith says his company has evidence that there are microbes that can upregulate genes that control sugar produc- tion in some plants a finding that could help boost plant sizes and yields or lead to improvements in nutritional content. You can imagine in wheat for example adding protein would be a huge benefit or adding sugar to sugar cane Meadows- Smith says. Those discoveries are coming quickly and the pace shows no signs of slowing as new technologies make it cheaper and faster to identify the microbes affecting plants. If you look at how we analyze microbes 20 years ago it would have taken us years to do some of the testing. Now we can do some of these in a matter of hours Bletsky says. And as companies delve into the microbial world and compe- tition thickens they promise innovation and new methods. Meadows-Smiths company is pioneering a new method for identifying beneficial microbes. Bioconsortia will test plants in the same type of soil sampled from different locations. Some plants will do as expected others will do poorly but some will excel and the company can then isolate the types of microbes that differ and determine whether they might be candidates for new products. The only varient is the microbes that are in the soil and inter- acting with the plant Meadows-Smith says. There is a whole toolkit that has only been cost-effective for about five years now which is why were seeing a rapid increase in the products on the market. Stewardship In some cases such as rhizobia and soybeans microbes are a clear advantage over any type of chemical a farmer would be able to spread onto fields. In other cases those chemicals are light years ahead of anything microbials are known to do. Its possible that microbials will one day replace some chemi- cals but its important Bletsky says to think about microbials as tools in a growing toolbox. A lot of the microbial products on the market are good but theyre not as good as the chemistry where with herbicides youll have 95 percent control. The biologics doesnt have those results yet Bletsky says. But if we can reduce the amount of Plants are grown in chambers and tested at BioConsortia. PHOTOBIOCONSORTIA.