Rhizobacteria-based solution for improving drought tolerance in crops like corn

Overview

Drought is a leading cause of yield loss in cereal cropping systems, and projections indicate worsening impacts on corn production across the central and southeastern United States. This technology offers a sustainable, biologically based solution by leveraging plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) to confer drought tolerance to host plants. When applied to seeds or seedlings before water stress begins, selected PGPR strains enhance root system architecture, increase water uptake surface area, and improve water retention to prevent root desiccation. The approach has been demonstrated across multiple crops including corn, wheat, and bermudagrass.

Technical specifications

Key features:

• Novel PGPR strains isolated through bioprospecting with demonstrated ability to confer host drought tolerance
• Mechanism involves direct and indirect production of plant hormones and signaling molecules that alter root system architecture
• Improves root growth and water uptake surface area exploration under drought stress
• Enhances water retention at the root zone to prevent desiccation
• Compatible with corn, wheat, and bermudagrass, with potential applicability to additional cereal crops
• Draft genome sequences completed for three candidate strains, enabling sequence-based characterization and optimization
• Application method involves inoculation into the rhizosphere of seedlings prior to the onset of water deficiency

Technology readiness level

The technology has progressed through initial laboratory and bioprospecting studies confirming the drought-tolerance capability of candidate PGPR strains. Greenhouse validation trials are planned to evaluate the best-performing strains under controlled drought stress at multiple growth stages over a one-year period. Following greenhouse validation, the leading candidate will advance to field trials in the second year. The team is actively seeking partners to support scale-up fermentation, genome sequence analysis of top-performing strains, and assay execution. Current readiness is at the pre-field validation stage with strong preliminary evidence supporting continued development toward commercial deployment.