Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RhizoEng (Rhizosphere engineering: influence on signaling behavior and colonization under drought conditions)
Reporting period: 2021-12-01 to 2023-11-30
Developing climate resilience in agricultural crops is a major challenge. The MSCA-RhizoEng action focused on development of a strategy to engineer the rhizosphere for enhanced microbial associations under drought conditions. This was achieved by understanding the belowground signalling behaviour of wheat under drought conditions, followed by manipulating the microbial assembly within the rhizosphere using root exudates, and/or microbial inputs in the form of targeted synthetic community. This strategy successfully improved the aboveground phenotype under drought conditions. The outcomes of this project specifically highlighted the significance of considering chemical ecology of the rhizosphere for its reflection on plant performance under stressful circumstances. Furthermore, the rhizosphere engineering strategy developed in this project offers an innovative approach of utilizing host-signalling knowledge to modulate the belowground ecological interactions to favor a resilient phenotype. Therefore, the outcomes of this action prove rhizosphere engineering as a practical tool for generating abiotic stress resilience in crop plants.
This project for the first time unveiled the belowground signalling behaviour of wheat under drought conditions. Simultaneously, the impact of growth regime in the form of growth substrate on the signalling behaviour was uncovered. This helped in understanding the influence of drought on plant-projected signals that govern the structure and functioning of belowground assemblage.
Parallelly, the freshly generated plant signalling information allowed finer investigations on belowground crosstalks with the help of microbial bioreporter strains specifically designed to investigate the interactions of key beneficial functions such as ethylene attenuation, and hormone biosynthesis. Furthermore, a direct influence of signalling molecules on microbial behaviour individual strains was also decoded using the identified signalling molecules.
The outcomes were utilized to design a rhizosphere engineering strategy with the help of plant signalling molecules. The effectiveness of strategy towards mounting drought resilience was validated both in presence and absence of exogenous microbial inputs in the form of microbial synthetic community. The overall outcome indicated a positive influence of rhizosphere engineering on drought resilience in wheat.
Parallelly, the freshly generated plant signalling information allowed finer investigations on belowground crosstalks with the help of microbial bioreporter strains specifically designed to investigate the interactions of key beneficial functions such as ethylene attenuation, and hormone biosynthesis. Furthermore, a direct influence of signalling molecules on microbial behaviour individual strains was also decoded using the identified signalling molecules.
The outcomes were utilized to design a rhizosphere engineering strategy with the help of plant signalling molecules. The effectiveness of strategy towards mounting drought resilience was validated both in presence and absence of exogenous microbial inputs in the form of microbial synthetic community. The overall outcome indicated a positive influence of rhizosphere engineering on drought resilience in wheat.
Immediate-to-short term impacts of the project mainly influence the scientific community involved in development of technology interventions for abiotic stress management in agricultural crops. The dissemination is activities are mainly aimed at generating awareness among the academia and research to expand the horizons of the strategy to cover a diverse range of crops, and stress scenarios. Coupled with our ongoing attempts to scale-up the rhizosphere engineering strategy for field-implementation, these efforts are anticipated to strengthen the success of sustainable strategies aimed at smart cultivation.
Long term ecological impact of the outcomes could be clearly identified in terms of strengthened rhizosphere communities with beneficial microbes that could specifically function towards plant performance and resilience. This is mainly due to the use of specific host-derived information on signalling behaviour to encourage the assemblage of indigenous microbiota. Furthermore, in case of exogenous amendment of non-native microbial inputs, this strategy encourages selective characterization of the strains, which subsequently should help maintaining the targeted delivery with the help of signalling moieties, thereby enhancing the functional efficacy.
Long term ecological impact of the outcomes could be clearly identified in terms of strengthened rhizosphere communities with beneficial microbes that could specifically function towards plant performance and resilience. This is mainly due to the use of specific host-derived information on signalling behaviour to encourage the assemblage of indigenous microbiota. Furthermore, in case of exogenous amendment of non-native microbial inputs, this strategy encourages selective characterization of the strains, which subsequently should help maintaining the targeted delivery with the help of signalling moieties, thereby enhancing the functional efficacy.