Startup Bets Its Magic Touch on Seeds Can Boost Crop Yields

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https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600831/startup-bets-its-magic-touch-on-seeds-can-boost-crop-yields/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Startup Bets Its Magic Touch on Seeds Can Boost Crop Yields[/font]

[font size=4]Harnessing microbes to increase crop production could lessen the need for pesticides and fertilizer.[/font]

by Mike Orcutt | February 18, 2016

[font size=3]Might the communities of microörganisms living in healthy plants hold the keys to dramatically increasing crop yields? A new venture-backed company is betting yes.

Indigo, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup, is developing microbe-based crop treatments identified through the study of the beneficial bacteria and fungi—collectively known as the microbiome—that naturally live in and around plants. Formerly known as Symbiota, Indigo announced Thursday that this year it would release its first two products, microbe-based seed coatings for two undisclosed crops.

Using beneficial microbes to bolster crops is not a new idea. Major seed companies like Monsanto and Syngenta have released seed treatments that contain microbes and are investing in related research and development. Indigo is unique in its focus on microbes that live in the plant tissue, as opposed to in the soil near the plant’s roots, says the company’s CEO David Perry. Scientists have only recently begun to realize the extent of these communities and their importance to plant health.

So far Indigo’s scientists have field-tested its “beneficial microbes” on corn, wheat, cotton, soy, barley, canola, various beans, chickpeas, and sorghum. Perry says that based on field test results the company expects its first products to enable a 10 percent yield improvement or greater over untreated crops. He says Indigo’s crops also won’t need as much pesticides or fertilizer to thrive.

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[bananas]

1. “paradigm shift in thinking” about the plant microbiome

Perry says modern seeds have fewer microbes and less diversity in strains than their wild counterparts or even older seeds. One hypothesis is that modern agriculture practices, in particular the use of fungicides, has altered microbiomes of crops in detrimental ways.

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The idea behind Indigo is reflective of a fairly recent “paradigm shift in thinking” about the plant microbiome that’s similar to what’s been occurring in medicine, where only in the past several years have scientists realized the importance of the microbiome to human health, says Betsy Arnold, a professor of plant sciences and ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.