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Microbial Bioinnoculants for Sustainable Agriculture
Soil can be amended with microbes to support sustainable agricultural practices. With respect crop growth, plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) can be used to enhance plant health through nitrogen fixation, nutrient uptake, plant hormone production, and pathogen protection. In soil, microbes can be used to modulate soil wettability for improved water retention. Both provide sustainable solutions to increasing food production demands in the face of climate change. Leveraging the technologies developed in our lab, we are developing formulations of microbial consortia, or symbiotic combinations of multispecies bacteria, to promote crop growth, protect from plant pathogen infection, and to retain soil moisture after irrigation or a rainfall events to alleviate drought stress.
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(Top) Measuring changes in soil evaporation rates with inoculation of soil-wetting bacteria. (Bottom) Improvements in corn growth with symbiotic consortia of PGPB.
Publications:
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N. Barua, K.M. Clouse, D.A. Ruiz Diaz, M.R. Wagner, T.G. Platt, R.R. Hansen, “Screening the maize rhizobiome for consortia that improve Azospirillum brasilense root colonization and plant growth outcomes”, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 7:1106528 (2023). doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2023.1106528
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M.M. Gutierrez, M.V. Cameron-Harp, P.P. Chakraborty, E.M. Stallbaumer-Cyr, J.A. Morrow, R.R. Hansen, M.M. Derby, "Investigating a Microbial Approach to Water Conservation in Semi-Arid Regions: Effects of Bacillus subtilis and Surfactin on Evaporation Dynamics in Loam and Sandy Loam Soils", Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 6:959592 (2022). doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2022.959591