Root-dwelling microbe teams could protect strawberries from disease naturally
Soil Health
The strawberries in your backyard patch or local farm stand may soon get a boost from a probiotic-style soil treatment instead of another round of fungicide.
Researchers dug up the community of tiny organisms living around strawberry plant roots and picked out the friendliest ones, the ones that help plants grow bigger and also fend off a nasty fungal disease called anthracnose. They then combined these helpful microbes into small teams, called SynComs, to see if working together made them even more effective than any single microbe alone.
Key Findings
Beneficial bacteria and fungi were isolated directly from the strawberry rhizosphere, the thin zone of soil surrounding plant roots.
Selected microbes were combined into synthetic communities (SynComs) designed to promote plant growth.
The SynComs showed suppressive activity against anthracnose, a major fungal disease affecting strawberry crops.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists isolated helpful bacteria and fungi living naturally around strawberry roots and combined them into microbial teams that both boost plant growth and fight off anthracnose, a destructive fungal disease.
Species Mentioned
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