You don’t necessarily need to genetically modify plants in order to have them grow larger and produce better yields. Engineering the plant soil microbiome can also have a significant effect on the ability of crops to grow, according to a new Trends in Microbiology study.
In the study, biologists Ulrich Mueller from the University of Texas at Austin and Joel Sachs of the University of California, Riverside, found that breeding better soil microbes can improve the growth and nutritional value of a plant when compared to a second, genetically identical one.
The artificially-selected microbiomes can then be passed on from parents to offspring, the study authors explained. The discovery came after Mueller and Sachs noticed that several Arabidopsis plants in their lab were larger than others, despite having no genetic differences, said Gizmodo.
The duo determined that growth differences were due to differences in the microbes that lived in the soil around the plants’ roots. These microbes help plants convert nutrients into easier-to-use forms, and by harvesting them from the soil surrounding well-growing plants and transferring them, they could encourage plant growth in sterile dirt.
A cheaper, easier way to curb plant and animal diseases
This process, known as artificial selection, has long been used by farmers to breed healthier and larger livestock, Gizmodo said. Mueller and Sachs repeated the process multiple times, choosing the best from each generation of soil microbes based on which plants grew the largest. Over time genetically identical plants were able to grow better due to enhanced soil microbiomes.
“My hope,” Mueller said in a statement, “is that others will become interested in optimizing methods in other systems. For agricultural applications, I would start with artificial selection of root microbiomes in a greenhouse environment, using cash crops such as lettuce, cucumber, or tomatoes, learn from these greenhouse experiments, then gauge whether any of these principles can be applied to outdoor agriculture and horticulture.”
“Selecting artificial microbiomes may be a cheaper way to help curb plant and animal diseases rather than pesticides and antibiotics or creating genetically modified organisms,” he added. The methods required are extremely simple and could potentially done by anyone to engineer microbiomes specific to the problems of that specific place.
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Feature Image: Thinkstock
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