Researchers were successful in engineering the plant microbiome to protect them from the stressors of pesticides and alarming diseases, according to recent reports. Read here.
The next wave of innovations in crop science may come not from cross-breeding plants or reprogramming their genes but by tweaking the microbes that live in, on and around them.
Yes, plants have microbiomes, too, and those billions of tiny hitchhikers can help them grow and fight off invading pathogens. Researchers are trying to understand these microbial communities and adjust them to help plants become more resistant to drought, heat and infection. As crop diseases spread due to globalization and climate change, disease-resistant plants with fortified microbiomes may become vital to ensuring a steady food supply for a growing human population.
Bacteria breakthrough could lead to disease-resistant rice
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A bacterium from a rice plant in China is thought to have good disease-resistance properties.
Scientists from Austria think they have found the key to breeding more disease-resistant rice plants, a breakthrough which could improve the security of one of the world’s most important food sources.
Rice is the staple food of about half the world’s population. The cultivation of the rice plant is very water intensive and, according to the German aid organisation Welthungerhilfe, around 15 percent of rice is grown in areas with a high risk of drought.
Global warming is therefore becoming increasingly problematic for rice cultivation, more often leading to small harvests and hunger crises. Crop failures caused by plant pathogens only serve to further aggravate the situation.
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According to a study published recently in the scientific journal nature plants, the Graz University of Technology has discovered a bacterium that provides immunity to rice plants against pathogens.
Rice plant immunity
(Photo : Pixabay)
The scientists at the Institute of Environmental Biotechnology at The Graz University of Technology have been studying the microbiome of rice seeds to find the correlation between the health of rice plants and the occurrence of some microorganisms.
The study found a bacterium called Sphingomonas melonis in the seed of rice plants, this bacterium gives them protection against a pathogen called Burkholderia plantarii which are harmful to rice. This study is a breakthrough not just for China but the world at large.
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IMAGE: Rising global warming is problematic for the water-intensive cultivation of rice, the staple food for about half the world s population. view more
Credit: Mengcen Wang
Rice is the staple food of about half the world s population. The cultivation of the rice plant is very water-intensive and, according to the German aid organization Welthungerhilfe, around 15 per cent of rice is grown in areas with a high risk of drought. Global warming is therefore becoming increasingly problematic for rice cultivation, leading more and more often to small harvests and hunger crises. Crop failures caused by plant pathogens further aggravate the situation. Here, conventional agriculture is trying to counteract this with pesticides, which are mostly used as a precautionary measure in rice cultivation. The breeding of resistant plants is the only alternative to these environmentally harmful agents - and currently only moderately successful. If the plants are resistant to on