2019
Harnessing suppressive soils to engineer microbiome of biotic-stress tolerant soybean
Contributor/Checkoff:
Category:
Sustainable Production
Keywords:
Abiotic stressAgricultureLand Use Water supply
Parent Project:
This is the first year of this project.
Lead Principal Investigator:
Neha Potnis, Auburn University
Co-Principal Investigators:
Yucheng Feng, Auburn University
Kathy Lawrence, Auburn University
Edward Sikora, Auburn University
+2 More
Project Code:
Contributing Organization (Checkoff):
Institution Funded:
Brief Project Summary:

Soil-borne diseases constrain soybean production. An effective strategy to mitigate soil-borne diseases is developing disease suppressive soils to reduce plant disease, even in presence of a pathogen, susceptible host and favorable environmental conditions. Typically this is done with cover crops, crop rotation and no-till. This project studies a novel approach – using artificial selection to formulate a microbial cocktail that will confer disease suppression against a wide range of endemic soil-borne pathogens of soybean. Research takes advantage of the old rotation plots on the Auburn University campus to study their associated microbial communities that contribute towards healthy soil profiles and identifies keystone species of disease suppressive soils. Inoculating soybean seeds with keystone microbials before germination, may provide protection against plant pathogens.

Key Benefactors:
farmers, agronomists, Extension agents

Information And Results
Project Deliverables

We expect to see enrichment of keystone microbial taxa over time that are involved in disease suppression in these passage experiments. These keystone species will then be tested for their survival over time in the rhizosphere of soybean. By the end of this project period (1 year), we expect to identify microbes involved in disease suppression. Future studies will involve evaluating the application of these keystone species as soil inoculant in soybean fields.

Final Project Results

The United Soybean Research Retention policy will display final reports with the project once completed but working files will be purged after three years. And financial information after seven years. All pertinent information is in the final report or if you want more information, please contact the project lead at your state soybean organization or principal investigator listed on the project.