Tapping into a plant’s microbiome may protect it from harsh growing conditions
One solution to agriculture’s many challenges is to develop smarter fertilizers that aim not only to nourish the plant but also to maximize soil bacteria’s positive effects on the plant.
In the study published on December 4, in Nature: Scientific Reports, researchers at Utah State University recently analyzed the effects of two abiotic stressors on Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 (PcO6), a health-promoting bacterium native to the roots of dryland wheat in northern Utah. They found that stress can cause compositional changes in the bacterium’s extracellular structures called outer membrane vesicles, or OMVs. Scientists have long known that bacterial cells release OMVs, but this study asks what factors prompt their release and how the myriad functions of those structures can be leveraged for the crop’s benefit.
Key to this study is understanding that bacteria is not always bad. Also key to this study is understanding that stress can be good. The bacterium studied here, for example, protects wheat from drought by forming a film around its roots. But by introducing tiny particles of micronutrients, those benefits could be fortified.
Equally important to the findings are the instrument and algorithms used in the study. This is the first time that researchers have used Raman spectroscopy to study OMVs from root-colonizing bacteria.
The study was supported in part by the National Science Foundation, the Utah State University Agriculture Experiment Station, and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, but its implications extend beyond agriculture. Raman spectroscopy supported by machine learning algorithms is a powerful tool that can be used in any biological study.
