Metagenomics Guided Methods for Biocontrol of Root Microbial Communities with Anti-Fungal Activities in Soybean
Investigators
Objectives
- Characterize the impact of soilborne pathogens on the soybean root bacteriome/mycobiome endophytes in TRD, Southern blight, and root rot/aerial blight
- Screen a collection of root endophytes with known disease-suppressive activity in crop plants for antifungal activity against soybean fungal pathogens
- Perform functional analyses to evaluate the disease-suppressive performance of bacterial syncomms with inhibitory activity against X. necrophora, S. rolfsii, R. solani
- Evaluate the biocontrol activity syncomms against soybean fungal diseases in the field.
Expected End Results
Expect to comprehensively characterize the taxonomic and functional diversity of soybean root endophyte communities of healthy and diseased plants, showing microbiota succession through disease stages, changes in genetic diversity, and prevalent taxa associated with healthy vs. symptomatic roots, virulence genes of pathogenic microbiota and mycobiota. expect to identify microbial strains with potential antifungal activities. This will enrich the functional knowledge on anti-fungal and disease-suppressive strains that colonize the soybean root endosphere. Discover syncomms that can be used in bio-controlling fungal pathogens in soybeans. The results can be leveraged in new patents and technology transfer activities for soybean antifungal biocontrol. Validate biocontrol activity of syncomms against soybean fungal diseases in the field. The objective includes developing new methods for UAV surveillance of field trials to evaluate disease progression as well as new computational tools for disease prediction. The results will have broad applications in disease control, crop monitoring and yield improvement.