Restoring degraded microbiome function with self-assembled communities

2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Fernando Gutierrez ◽  
Janeth Sanabria ◽  
Jos M Raaijmakers ◽  
Ben O Oyserman

ABSTRACT The natural microbial functions of many soils are severely degraded. Current state-of-the-art technology to restore these functions is through the isolation, screening, formulation and application of microbial inoculants and synthetic consortia. These approaches have inconsistent success, in part due to the incompatibility between the biofertilizer, crop, climate, existing soil microbiome and physicochemical characteristics of the soils. Here, we review the current state of the art in biofertilization and identify two key deficiencies in current strategies: the difficulty in designing complex multispecies biofertilizers and the bottleneck in scaling the production of complex multispecies biofertilizers. To address the challenge of producing scalable, multispecies biofertilizers, we propose to merge ecological theory with bioprocess engineering to produce ‘self-assembled communities’ enriched for particular functional guilds and adapted to a target soil and host plant. Using the nitrogen problem as an anchor, we review relevant ecology (microbial, plant and environmental), as well as reactor design strategies and operational parameters for the production of functionally enriched self-assembled communities. The use of self-assembled communities for biofertilization addresses two major hurdles in microbiome engineering: the importance of enriching microbes indigenous to (and targeted for) a specific environment and the recognized potential benefits of microbial consortia over isolates (e.g. functional redundancy). The proposed community enrichment model could also be instrumental for other microbial functions such as phosphorus solubilization, plant growth promotion or disease suppression.

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (8) ◽  
pp. E911-E920 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Edwards ◽  
Cameron Johnson ◽  
Christian Santos-Medellín ◽  
Eugene Lurie ◽  
Natraj Kumar Podishetty ◽  
...  

Plants depend upon beneficial interactions between roots and microbes for nutrient availability, growth promotion, and disease suppression. High-throughput sequencing approaches have provided recent insights into root microbiomes, but our current understanding is still limited relative to animal microbiomes. Here we present a detailed characterization of the root-associated microbiomes of the crop plant rice by deep sequencing, using plants grown under controlled conditions as well as field cultivation at multiple sites. The spatial resolution of the study distinguished three root-associated compartments, the endosphere (root interior), rhizoplane (root surface), and rhizosphere (soil close to the root surface), each of which was found to harbor a distinct microbiome. Under controlled greenhouse conditions, microbiome composition varied with soil source and genotype. In field conditions, geographical location and cultivation practice, namely organic vs. conventional, were factors contributing to microbiome variation. Rice cultivation is a major source of global methane emissions, and methanogenic archaea could be detected in all spatial compartments of field-grown rice. The depth and scale of this study were used to build coabundance networks that revealed potential microbial consortia, some of which were involved in methane cycling. Dynamic changes observed during microbiome acquisition, as well as steady-state compositions of spatial compartments, support a multistep model for root microbiome assembly from soil wherein the rhizoplane plays a selective gating role. Similarities in the distribution of phyla in the root microbiomes of rice and other plants suggest that conclusions derived from this study might be generally applicable to land plants.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanchan Vishwakarma ◽  
Nitin Kumar ◽  
Chitrakshi Shandilya ◽  
Swati Mohapatra ◽  
Sahil Bhayana ◽  
...  

The present scenario of agricultural sector is dependent hugely on the use of chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides that impact the nutritional quality, health status, and productivity of the crops. Moreover, continuous release of these chemical inputs causes toxic compounds such as metals to accumulate in the soil and move to the plants with prolonged exposure, which ultimately impact the human health. Hence, it becomes necessary to bring out the alternatives to chemical pesticides/fertilizers for improvement of agricultural outputs. The rhizosphere of plant is an important niche with abundant microorganisms residing in it. They possess the properties of plant growth promotion, disease suppression, removal of toxic compounds, and assimilating nutrients to plants. Utilizing such beneficial microbes for crop productivity presents an efficient way to modulate the crop yield and productivity by maintaining healthy status and quality of the plants through bioformulations. To understand these microbial formulation compositions, it becomes essential to understand the processes going on in the rhizosphere as well as their concrete identification for better utilization of the microbial diversity such as plant growth–promoting bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Hence, with this background, the present review article highlights the plant microbiome aboveground and belowground, importance of microbial inoculants in various plant species, and their subsequent interactive mechanisms for sustainable agriculture.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prasun Ray ◽  
Venkatachalam Lakshmanan ◽  
Jessy L. Labbé ◽  
Kelly D. Craven

Light, water and healthy soil are three essential natural resources required for agricultural productivity. Industrialization of agriculture has resulted in intensification of cropping practices using enormous amounts of chemical pesticides and fertilizers that damage these natural resources. Therefore, there is a need to embrace agriculture practices that do not depend on greater use of fertilizers and water to meet the growing demand of global food requirements. Plants and soil harbor millions of microorganisms, which collectively form a microbial community known as the microbiome. An effective microbiome can offer benefits to its host, including plant growth promotion, nutrient use efficiency, and control of pests and phytopathogens. Therefore, there is an immediate need to bring functional potential of plant-associated microbiome and its innovation into crop production. In addition to that, new scientific methodologies that can track the nutrient flux through the plant, its resident microbiome and surrounding soil, will offer new opportunities for the design of more efficient microbial consortia design. It is now increasingly acknowledged that the diversity of a microbial inoculum is as important as its plant growth promoting ability. Not surprisingly, outcomes from such plant and soil microbiome studies have resulted in a paradigm shift away from single, specific soil microbes to a more holistic microbiome approach for enhancing crop productivity and the restoration of soil health. Herein, we have reviewed this paradigm shift and discussed various aspects of benign microbiome-based approaches for sustainable agriculture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Cui ◽  
Zihao Qin ◽  
Huan Wu ◽  
Man Li ◽  
Yongjie Hu

AbstractThermal management is the most critical technology challenge for modern electronics. Recent key materials innovation focuses on developing advanced thermal interface of electronic packaging for achieving efficient heat dissipation. Here, for the first time we report a record-high performance thermal interface beyond the current state of the art, based on self-assembled manufacturing of cubic boron arsenide (s-BAs). The s-BAs exhibits highly desirable characteristics of high thermal conductivity up to 21 W/m·K and excellent elastic compliance similar to that of soft biological tissues down to 100 kPa through the rational design of BAs microcrystals in polymer composite. In addition, the s-BAs demonstrates high flexibility and preserves the high conductivity over at least 500 bending cycles, opening up new application opportunities for flexible thermal cooling. Moreover, we demonstrated device integration with power LEDs and measured a superior cooling performance of s-BAs beyond the current state of the art, by up to 45 °C reduction in the hot spot temperature. Together, this study demonstrates scalable manufacturing of a new generation of energy-efficient and flexible thermal interface that holds great promise for advanced thermal management of future integrated circuits and emerging applications such as wearable electronics and soft robotics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong-ming Ding ◽  
Yu-qiang Ma

This review summarizes the state-of-the-art computational approaches for investigating the physical mechanisms of cytotoxicity caused by nanomaterials as well as the current state of design strategies for safe and novel nanomaterials for biomedical applications.


1995 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 1126-1142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey W. Gilger

This paper is an introduction to behavioral genetics for researchers and practioners in language development and disorders. The specific aims are to illustrate some essential concepts and to show how behavioral genetic research can be applied to the language sciences. Past genetic research on language-related traits has tended to focus on simple etiology (i.e., the heritability or familiality of language skills). The current state of the art, however, suggests that great promise lies in addressing more complex questions through behavioral genetic paradigms. In terms of future goals it is suggested that: (a) more behavioral genetic work of all types should be done—including replications and expansions of preliminary studies already in print; (b) work should focus on fine-grained, theory-based phenotypes with research designs that can address complex questions in language development; and (c) work in this area should utilize a variety of samples and methods (e.g., twin and family samples, heritability and segregation analyses, linkage and association tests, etc.).


1976 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 497-498
Author(s):  
STANLEY GRAND

10.37236/24 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Di Bucchianico ◽  
D. Loeb

We survey the mathematical literature on umbral calculus (otherwise known as the calculus of finite differences) from its roots in the 19th century (and earlier) as a set of “magic rules” for lowering and raising indices, through its rebirth in the 1970’s as Rota’s school set it on a firm logical foundation using operator methods, to the current state of the art with numerous generalizations and applications. The survey itself is complemented by a fairly complete bibliography (over 500 references) which we expect to update regularly.


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