Microbial biostimulants for crop water and nitrogen use efficiency

Overview

This solution centers on microbial biostimulants based on two fungal symbionts, Trichoderma and arbuscular mycorrhiza, that establish mutualistic relationships with crops at the plant and rhizosphere level. By eliciting secondary metabolism in plants, these biostimulants improve tolerance to abiotic stress and enhance both nitrogen use efficiency and water use efficiency. The result is the potential to maintain crop productivity while significantly reducing water and nitrogen inputs, lowering nitrate leaching, and increasing resilience to climate change effects.

Technical specifications

Mechanism of action:

• Trichoderma and arbuscular mycorrhiza trigger plant metabolic responses including radical scavenger production, innate immunity activation, hormonal crosstalk shifts, and modulation of root exudation patterns
• These elicitation effects improve nutrient uptake and water use efficiency under limiting conditions

Application methods:

• Arbuscular mycorrhiza applied at seeding (wheat) or transplanting (tomato)
• Trichoderma applied foliarly at the pre-flowering stage

Validation approach:

• Field studies focused on productivity and yield quality across monocot and dicot plants, including herbaceous and tree crops
• Controlled environment trials in greenhouses, phytotrons, and growth chambers to investigate underlying mechanisms
• Phenomics combined with metabolomics using liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry, multivariate statistics, and pathway analysis on roots, shoots, and fruits/seeds

Measured traits include: biomass indexes, SPAD readings, and chlorophyll fluorescence for photosynthetic efficiency

Technology readiness level

The biostimulant approach has been validated across multiple crop types in both field and controlled environments, demonstrating improvements in nutrient and water use efficiency. Future validation plans include controlled environment trials with nitrogen reduced by 40% across the whole growth cycle and water reduced by 40% from pre-flowering, applied individually and combined, using tomato and wheat as model crops. A control with optimal nitrogen and water supply will serve as the reference. Phenotypic and metabolomic analyses will further characterize the biochemical processes behind improved stress coping ability.