DAY 2 - CET (Central European Time, GMT+01:00)
DAY 2 - CET (Central European Time, GMT+01:00)
- Jean Christophe Avice (Scientific Committee Advisor) - Professor, Université de Caen Normandie
- Davide Cammarano, Keynote Speaker - Professor, Department of Agroecology - Climate and Water, Aarhus University
Biostimulants can be used to enhance metabolic efficiency and thus improve germination or promote plant growth in different crop species (Gupta et al., 2022). The effectiveness of biostimulants often depends on biostimulant type, concentration, and plant species but also on the plant stage when the application is done. At initial stage, seedling establishment plays a key role in crop production and seed coating technology has been applied to maximise early stand establishment of many crops. The use of biostimulants as seed coatings may offer a great opportunity to enhance crop productivity and to increase long-term sustainability of agriculture. Imaging assisted devices allow quantitative and dynamic measurements of germination and seedling growth rates. High frequency of imaging in controlled conditions gives the accuracy needed to differentiate untreated seeds from those coated with biostimulants. Three tools will be presented to score germination rate, heterotrophic growth rate or root development to replace biomass measurements which are invasive and laborious. Some examples will illustrate screening of candidates or adapted concentrations and the plant genetic interaction with biostimulation especially with microbial inoculants.
- Audrey Dupont - Method development manager, GEVES
- Raphael Godinho - Commercial Director EMEA, Corteva Biologicals
The unicellular microalgae, Euglena gracilis, has the ability to produce up to 80% paramylon of cell dry weight1,2. Paramylon is a unique carbohydrate storage polymer in the form of agglomerated, unbranched 1,3-beta-glucan which is used by E. gracilis during times of famine. These same beta-glucans are present in plant pathogens and elicit broad plant defense responses3-5. The activation of these plant responses without the presence of a pathogen can result in plant priming, rapid growth, increased nutrient absorption, and increased nutrient movement through the plant6. Plant biostimulation by 1,3-beta-glucans was evaluated in two plug trials and two fruit yield trials. The respective mode of action of 1,3-beta-glucan and the impacts of application method, application rates, and drought stress on the resulting growth and production of various plant varieties will be reviewed. Overall, applications demonstrated biostimulation with significant improvements in multiple vegetative growth parameters and fruit yield, thus furthering the support of 1,3-beta-glucan incorporation into sustainable agricultural practices. The production of E. gracilis and the resulting paramylon can be continuously and sustainably manufactured thus making it available for wide spread agricultural use.
- Emily Fuerst - R&D Director, Kemin
- Emilie Hascoet - Project Manager, Vegenov
Under suboptimal growing conditions, there is an increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can harm proteins, lipids, and DNA in plant cells1–3. When ROS accumulates in high amounts, it can reduce crop productivity and plant growth4,5. While some recent work indicated that biostimulants can reduce stress levels, which results in less ROS production in crop plants6,7.Finding new, non-toxic, sustainable, and biodegradable biochemicals is crucial for improving agricultural productivity in the 21st century. Designing and creating novel biostimulants is an essential process that requires precise testing of their effects on plant morpho-physiological traits and a thorough understanding of the mechanisms underlying their actions8. Common methods for finding new biostimulants in nature is a challenging task that requires a deep understanding of the complex interactions between plants, microorganisms, and the environment9. Searching for new biostimulants often involves a combination of natural product discovery, bioprospecting, combinatorial chemistry, genomics, and high-throughput screening10. In recent years, we have developed a whole-plant redox imaging approach that uses a chloroplast-targeted redox-sensitive green fluorescence protein 2 (roGFP2)11,12. This technology offers a promising tool for studying plant responses to biostimulants activities under different stresses environmental and biological stresses11,13. By using this technology, we can fine-tune, scientifically validate, and customize protocols for developed biostimulants. We can also screen large numbers of biological compounds and identify those that have redox activity, as well as discover new compounds that can lower stress levels more quickly and efficiently.
- Matanel Hipsch - PhD Student, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
In our study, we evaluated the effect of Trichoderma, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and/or plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) on yield and quality of different tomato ecotypes. The treatments with PBs were able to increase the yield of Pixel hybrid (+140%), and “Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio†(PPV) (+135%), while did not affect the industrial tomato Heinz. Since both PPV and Heinz were grown in open field, this result confirms the ability of microbial PBs to colonize and modify the root systems thus favoring the uptake of water and nutrients in specific genetic or environmental host conditions. Trichoderma harzianum (T22) increased Ca, P, Zn and Mn uptake (+205%, +46% and +37% respectively) in Pixel, while AMF rose that of Ca, Zn and Mg (+30%, +35% and +10%, respectively) in PPV landraces. T22 increased the content of glutamate in Pixel (+10%), while AMF increased that of aspartate (+156%) in PPV (on avg 219 µmol g-1), being both amino acids essential for improving the taste and quality of tomato fruits. Alanine, GABA and lycopene, which can exert anaplerotic and antioxidant functions, also increased in Pixel (10%, 88% and 46%, respectively) and PPV (70%, 72% and 96%, respectively) treated with PBs. Instead, Heinz treated with commercial microbial PBs underwent an increase of tyrosine, GABA, alanine, MEA and lycopene (+ 10%, +60%, +52%, +50% and +10%, respectively). Indeed, these PBs may represent a promising strategy for improving not only the nutritional and nutraceutical quality of tomatoes but also for extending their shelf-life.
- Giovanna Fusco - PhD Student, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli"
- Taking risks and learning from mistakes in the biological sector
- How to spot a good opportunity and how to avoid a bad one
- Managing change within the biological sector
- How we took a vision and made it a reality
- Michael Tanchum - CEO, Nexus Foresight
- Uwe Conrath (Keynote Speaker) - Professor, Plant Physiology Department Aachen Biology and Biotechnology (ABBt), RWTH Aachen University
- Prof. Maurizio Ruzzi - Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia
Until recently, research focused on the study of the microbiota of the rhizosphere and PGPRs that compose it and the services it can provide to the plant with promises of improved growth, nutrition and health. Many successes are recorded to date. More recently, research started focusing on microbiota colonizing other parts of the plant: the spermosphere, endosphere and phyllosphere.In this work, we were interested in the composition of the microbiota of the phyllosphere of several plants (apple trees, corn, winter wheat …) and built up a strain library of PGPR bacteria from this environment. It emerges that a certain number of functions are overrepresented even if they are a priori of little use on the leaf, with a significant number of phosphorus solubilizing bacteria.From this strain library, we selected several bacterial candidates of interest, focusing on the Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE), expression of atmospheric nitrogen fixation and the production of IAA. Candidates also had to express additional PGPR functions. Tests carried out in vitro on different range plants (corn and winter wheat) made it possible to narrow the funnel in order to select three candidates with high potential: two methylotrophic strains belonging to the genus Methylobacterium and one strain of Arthrobacter pascens.The genomes of these strains were sequenced and exploited bioinformatically to confirm the taxonomy and the potential genes of interest and markers of pathogenicity and the growth and stability of the strains were optimized In vitro. We also determined their ability to express their functions, whether in epiphytic or endophytic positions, and their ability to propagate in the plant horizontally and vertically.The next question was whether it was more useful for the plant to use each bacterium alone or rather in consortium with the others. The tests carried out in the field and under controlled conditions, in foliar application on different crops and in different pedo-climates have shown the consortium's superiority compared to the isolated strains. Better results from emergence to yield, rooting and quality were obtained, with significant improvement of NUE. Field tests over three years produced consistent results showing a compensation of 20 to 40 % of needed mineral nitrogen by using this consortium in very diverse situations. These results were also found to be highly reproducible and statistically significant.This study has shown that the plant phyllosphere microbiota can be used to select promising and very effective PGPRs to improve crop growth, nutrition, and health. Field trial results have shown the effectiveness of this approach
- Hicham Ferhout - R&D Manager, Agronutrition
- Rejane Souza - SVP Global Innovation, Yara International
- Holly Little - Director, Research & Development, Acadian Plant Health
- Girish Tavarekere Rudrappa - Head of Research and Development - Plant Health, Sea6 Energy
- Francisco Romero-Campero - Associate Professor, The Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis, (IBVF), CSIC & University of Seville
Agriculture has to meet the challenge of ensuring food security for a growing world population in the context of climate change. In this situation, developing a sustainable agricultural model that can reach adequate productivity is crucial. Simultaneously, industries generate by-products that could be upcycled and used in agriculture as biostimulants. Protein hydrolysates, which contain amino acids, have already been demonstrated to improve plant performance traits. This project aims to investigate biostimulant power of individual amino acids in Arabidopsis thaliana. We explored the nutritive potentials of amino acids and their biostimulant effects in the presence of nitrate. Plants were grown in vitro on an agar medium and growth was monitored by imaging the plant surface. We developed an index of amino acid use efficiency to classify each amino acid regarding its effect. Positive amino acids were further studied over a large range of concentrations to determine the minimal dose that can be used to stimulate plant growth. The physiological mechanisms underlying those amino acids were investigated for nitrate uptake, monitored using 15KNO3, and root architecture. Our plant growth design and the index are new tools that can be beneficial to test other products. They can be used to provide measurable traits to investigate the genetic variability of the plant response.
- Manon Lardos - PhD Student, IJPB/NOVAEM
Protein hydrolysates (PHs) are a heterogeneous class of plant biostimulants, derived from animal, vegetal or microbial biomass hydrolyzed chemically or enzymatically. These products are usually obtained from industrial by-waste and fit in the virtuous circular economy model. Although PHs are largely exploited in agricultural practices, and many scientific works highlight their biostimulatory effects, it is not clear which mechanisms of action trigger the plant responses. Some products, especially collagen-derived PHs (CDPHs), predominantly constituted of few oligopeptide species and free amino acids, can be dissected in their chemical composition. This thorough characterization led to the discovery of a bioactive peptide capable to recapitulate the entire CDPH root growth promoting effect (Ambrosini et al. 2022) and paved the way for further analysis. A multidisciplinary approach has been chosen to pinpoint the presence in plants of receptors which possibly recognize peptides originated from animal proteins such as collagen, and trigger a metabolic cascade of reactions responsible for the biostimulant effects. In silico studies were conducted and the results highlighted the resemblance between some mammalian collagen receptors and plant proteins, suggesting that a somewhat conserved functional domain might exist and be involved in PHs signal perception and transduction. Moreover, biotechnological techniques, such as stable and transient expression of genes, are currently being exploited to obtain the heterologous production of the well characterized collagen peptide in different plant cell compartments. Altogether, these insights provide a description of the mechanisms of action of CDPHs, and present an innovative experimental workflow never explored in the biostimulant field.
- Stefano Ambrosini - PhD Student, University of Verona
The molecular weight of the protein fraction is generally considered as one of the most important quality features of an amino acid biostimulant, and the share of "free" amino acids the key metric to express that quality feature. There is however no uniform use of the term "free" amino acids in terms of the Dalton range it represents. This ambiguity in use by different producers/distributors makes it difficult to explain the differences in products to end-customers and undermines the credibility of amino acid biostimulants specifically and biostimulants in general. In our presentation, we want to make a case for the use of a uniform approach to representing the molecular weight of amino acid biostimulants. Secondly, we illustrate the (relative) importance of molecular weight by comparing lab trial results on tomatoes of an amino acid hydrolysate in different molecular weight variations.
- Vaast Vanoverschelde - CEO, Stam Agro
- Sylvain Pluchon - Plant Nutrition Director, Timac Agro
- Paolo Vitulli - Junior Controller and Marketing Manager, SPAA Srl
- Anita Zamboni - Associate Professor, Biotechnology Department, University of Verona