+44-1518-081136Seed transmitted microbes are foundational to the microbiomes of crop plants
3rd Annual Congress on Plant Biology & Agricultural Sciences
April 04, 2022 | Webinar
David Johnston-Monje
Universidad del Valle Colombia, Colombia
Scientific Tracks Abstracts : J Agric Sci Bot
Abstract:
Bioprospecting for beneficial bacteria within plant microbiomes offers much potential to develop inoculants for sustainably improving plant productivity, mitigating stress, and controlling diseases. With the goal of finding beneficial endophytes for maize agriculture, I discovered that seeds were a rich source of endophytes, especially belonging to the genus Pantoea, Enterobacter, and Burkholderia, and that some of these had the ability to systemically move through adult plants, exit through the roots and colonize the rhizosphere. Some examples of these beneficial seed bacteria were the strongly plant growth promoting Burkholderia phytofirmans isolated from seeds from a giant Mexican landrace, root growth enhancing Enterobacter asburiae isolated from seeds of a wild variety of Nicaraguan swamp grass and the fungal biocontrol strain Burkholderia gladioli isolated from seeds of a Mexican desert popcorn. We went on to find that seeds are more important than soil in the formation of young maize endospheres, and likewise the rhizospheres of young maize plants are dominated by seed transmitted Proteobacteria, primarily Burkholderia and Enterobacter. Expanding the study to include 16 other species of angiosperm plant including Arabidopsis, Brachypodium, wheat, tomato, rice and coffee, we found evidence that the seeds, spermospheres, shoots, roots and rhizospheres of angiosperms are all dominated by taxonomically similar strains of Pantoea, Enterobacter and Pseudomonas. Shared by dicots and monocots alike, this core microbiome perhaps hints at an important and ancient relationship between seed transmitted Proteobaceria and angiosperm plants. Patents related to these discoveries, helped launch the company Indigo Agriculture, which is the best funded agriculture startup in world history.
Biography:
David Johnston-Monje was born as a Canadian in Bogota, Colombia, and grew up in Peru and Jamaica before moving to Ottawa, Canada at the age of ten. By age 15 he decided to study plant biology, doing an undergrad in chemical ecology of medicinal plants with John Arnason at the University of Ottawa, a M.Sc. in wood genetics at the University of British Columbia with the late Carl Douglas and a PhD with Manish Raizada at the University of Guelph in microbial ecology of maize. He has also been a visiting scientist at Biodiversity International, the International Potato Research Institute in Peru, at EMBRAPA Agrobiology in Brazil and most recently at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia. His post-doctoral research with George Lazarovits at the company A&L Biologicals focused on discovering what causes an emerging disease called tomato vine decline. Having discovered the most abundant parts of the maize microbiome are transmitted through seed he was recruited to help start the endophyte focused company Indigo Agriculture in Boston, where he lead efforts to bioprospect for beneficial microbes, analyze plant microbiomes, develop inoculant formulations for seeds, and assay plant-microbe interactions in field trials. Most of Indigo Agriculture's patents are based on his research, which laid the foundation for it to become the most well-funded agricultural startup company ever. David currently works as Principle Investigator and Max Planck Tandem Group Leader at Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, cooperating with Paul Schulze-Lefert at the MP Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany.
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