Science & Technology, Singapore (Commonwealth Union) – Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) have unveiled a powerful natural solution to address contemporary agricultural challenges: agro-microbials, which are natural agro-chemicals fostering collaboration between crops and microbes to enhance crop yield and productivity.
Over a five-year study starting in 2018, the scientists made a groundbreaking discovery regarding the role of methyl jasmonate (MeJA), a well-known protective hormone released by plants above ground during periods of stress. MeJA was found to function as a shared language facilitating communication between plants and the surrounding soil microorganisms.
Through a specially designed airflow system, it was observed for the first time that MeJA is released in a volatile form underground by plant roots. The presence of volatile MeJA prompts and amplifies the formation of biofilms in bacteria located at a distance from the plant roots, and these bacteria within the biofilm release a distinct set of volatile compounds capable of enhancing plant growth by up to 30%.
The detailed findings were documented in the scientific paper titled ‘Volatile methyl jasmonate from roots signals the formation of host-beneficial biofilms by the soil microbiome,’ published in the esteemed journal Nature Chemical Biology last month.
Associate Professor Sanjay Swarup, one of the Principal Investigator at the Research Centre on Sustainable Urban Farming (SUrF) under the NUS Faculty of Science and a Deputy Research Director at SCELSE, says “The impact of this discovery is manifold and key to sustainable agriculture. Harnessing these agricultural microbes will not only boost crop productivity, but also reduce the need for synthetic inputs and mitigate the environmental impact of modern farming practices.”
Having unveiled nature’s inherent means of communication between plants and beneficial microbes, the research team has initiated the patenting process for harnessing this innovative application to enhance agricultural resilience and productivity. The potential outcome of this endeavor could lead to a new generation of agro-chemicals or nature-inspired compounds designed to amplify benefits for plants.
Agro-microbials, with their capacity to influence plant growth, offer a viable solution to address global food security concerns. With the world’s population anticipated to reach 10 billion by 2050, ensuring an adequate and secure food supply has become a paramount challenge. Notably, Singapore has set a “30 by 30” target, aiming to produce 30% of its nutritional needs by 2030.
In pursuit of these goals, the agricultural sector must urgently confront the impacts of climate change, land degradation, and increasingly erratic weather patterns. Agro-microbials, along with nature-based agrochemicals, are emerging as promising strategies for sustainable agriculture.
Agro-microbials encompass microbial communities associated with crops, fulfilling crucial roles in promoting plant growth, preventing diseases, and facilitating nitrogen fixation. Additionally, they contribute to soil fertility by decomposing organic matter, recycling nutrients, and forming humus to retain moisture. These diverse agro-microbial communities thrive within biofilms, where they are embedded in a self-produced matrix, as indicated by researchers of the study.
The aromatic methyl jasmonate (MeJA) volatile organic compound (VOC) demonstrates an ability to influence microbes at a distance. This underscores the notion that the signaling can extend beyond the plant’s immediate rhizosphere—the specialized zone around plant roots where soluble and volatile molecules facilitate communication between plants and associated microbiota, as researchers of the study pointed out.
Dr. Omkar Kulkarni, the joint first author of the paper and currently a research scientist at the L’Oréal-SCELSE joint laboratory, emphasized, that plants may not communicate like humans, but they possess elegant methods of exchanging information across considerable distances. This exciting discovery not only enhances our understanding of plant-microbe interactions but also holds the potential to pave the way for the development of nature-based agrochemicals. Dr. Kulkarni conducted this research as part of his doctoral work at the Department of Biological Sciences of the NUS Faculty of Science.
