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Revision as of 19:30, 17 October 2018
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Enabling soil bacteria to sense and respond to plant signals
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Challenges in Agriculture
The agricultural practices followed by farmers in India are largely unsustainable and require the usage of synthetic chemical fertilizers to ensure adequate plant nutrition, harmful pesticides and weedicides protect crops against various diseases and tackle weeds respectively. Excessive usage of these chemicals lead to environmental pollution as well as a variety of health problems in the farming community. These facts are supported by the information gained from our Human Practices activities. Hence there is a need for a solution that is easy to implement and moves Indian agriculture towards more sustainable practices.
Sustainable Agriculture and our project
Plant root exudates can act as molecular signals for microorganisms in the rhizosphere, which can in turn modulate gene expression. To exploit this natural phenomenon and engineer microorganisms to sense and respond to plants, we are studying changes in gene expression in the common soil bacterium, Bacillus subtilis, in response to root exudates of rice, wheat, tomato and soybean plants. As a case study, we are constructing a genetic amplifier using an exudate-inducible promoter to produce phosphatase, which will help solubilize organic phosphate present in the soil, and thus reduce the requirement of inorganic phosphatic fertilizers. This represents and advance towards smart soil management practices and sustainable agriculture.