Optimizing tomato plant growth with microbes

Researcher 研究者名 Sugiyama, Akifumi Activity Database on Education and Research Overview Kyoto, Japan -- Plants are home to a diverse array of microorganisms that support their growth and help them adapt to environmental stress -- of which there has been an abundance of late. High temperatures and drought caused by human-induced climate change have led to reduced crop yields and the use of biofertilizers such as rhizosphere microorganisms, which help plants absorb nutrients and increase their resistance to disease and stresses. Yet single microorganisms have difficulties sustaining themselves in crops and remaining functional in the fluctuating environment of an agricultural field. This is where microbial communities can help. A recent approach involves creating defined microbial communities -- DMCs -- by combining multiple microorganisms, which in turn influence each other and can thereby strengthen their resilience. However, the composition and function of such a community changes depending on plant-specialized metabolites and environmental conditions, rendering these rather impractical to use in conventional trial-and-error experiments aiming to find optimal microbial communities