Scientists demonstrated that microorganisms help to control plant water flow and thus tolerance to droughts. Plants inoculated with selected microorganisms had their leaf temperature reduced by up to 4°C, as their water flow and leaf perspiration were optimized by the technology. In water scarcity scenarios, inoculated plants' yield was three times higher. The research team developed a sophisticated real-time data collection platform for the observation. The work gathered more than five million data points, 60,000 photos and analyzed 500 plants. The discovery paves the way for the development of new agricultural biotechnologies. Research led by the Genomics for Climate Change Research Center (GCCRC), an initiative by Embrapa and the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), demonstrated that microorganisms can reduce the temperature of plants. The scientists demonstrated that the presence of a synthetic community of such small living beings was capable of reducing the leaf temperature of corn plants submitted to high temperatures in up to four degrees. The study Modulating drought stress response of maize by a synthetic bacterial community was published on Thursday (21) in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology. Through a sophisticated data collection platform, the researchers showed that microorganisms help to control plant water flow and thus tolerance to droughts. The discovery paves the way for the development of new agricultural biotechnologies that can ensure food security during the transition to a low carbon economy. Scientists have been discovering that fungi, bacteria and archaea present in the soil and plant roots, stem and leaves play a fundamental role in plant growth, productivity and response in changing conditions in the environment such as droughts and heat. What was not known was how this interaction occur and how such invisible beings affect plants. Read the full paper The work available here was authored by Jaderson S. L. Armanhi, Rafael S. C. de Souza and Bárbara B. Biazotti, from GCCRC and Unicamp's Center of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering (CBMEG) ; Juliana E. Yassitepe, from GCCRC and Embrapa Digital Agriculture; and Paulo Arruda, from GCCRC, CBMEG and Unicamp's Biology Institute. Part of these challenges stems from limitations in methodologies to measure what occurs in the plants in real time. "Common strategies stumble in the impossibility to continuously assess plant response to fluctuations in the environment, as they are limited to a few measurements performed incidentally", explains the molecular biologist Jaderson Armanhi, a GCCRC researcher and author of the study. A sophisticated tool made in-house To circumvent this problem, the scientists built a platform of sensors that can measure temperature, water flow, photosynthesis, and several other parameters of plants and their environment in real time. "We used multiple non-invasive sensors attached to the plants, environmental sensors and cameras; all with simultaneous data collection points", reports Armanhi, who delved in the world of electronic engineering to create the technological apparatus required for the collection of data in real time. "Commercial large-scale phenotyping platforms are complex structures and high cost, which limits their use to a few laboratories in the world. The platform built by this study shows that it is possible to obtain robust new information and, even superficially, save resources", evaluates the researcher from Embrapa Digital Agriculture Juliana Yassitepe, coauthor of the paper. Thus an experiment was set up using two groups of corn plants: one with the inoculation of previously selected microorganisms and the other one without. Both groups were continuously monitored for four months (see the video below). In the end, the study gathered more than five million data points, 60,000 photos and investigated 500 plants. Using computational biology approaches, the researchers found evidence that the group of plants with the selected microorganisms had their leaf temperature reduced in up to 4°C. That was because the inoculated plants were able to optimize water flow and leaf transpiration. Antipyretic for plants “ Extreme heat leads to dysfunction in proteins and other plant molecules, harming plant growth. The community of synthetic microorganisms works as an antipyretic for the plant", explains Paulo Arruda, Unicamp professor and coordinator of the center. The authors underscore that both inoculated and non-inoculated plants have the same performance with regard to the productivity in normal irrigation conditions. However, in water scarcity scenarios, the yield of inoculated plants was three times higher. "We see inoculation as "insurance" for the plant in the case of extreme drought. In light of water scarcity scenarios, the microorganisms selected based on robustness were able to ensure plant's health and reduce the losses caused by the lack of water", Armanhi asserts. Microbiome technologies for agriculture The scientists report that the studies on the contributions of the microorganisms for agriculture, health and environment move towards more systemic approaches, considering the role of the whole microbiome in the environment, that is, the joint effect of fungi, bacteria and archaea in different environments. "What we discovered was the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot to be explored with regard to the potential benefits that such organisms offer in combination with agriculture, for instance", reports Armanhi. According to the United Nations (UN) report on climate, the Earth is warming before expected. Consequently, extreme climate events like floods and heat waves are occurring more often. If such scenario is not reversed, some of the direct effects for countries like Brazil will be more frequent droughts and a fall in food production capacity, the UN points out. To address this challenge, the GCCRC has been exploring new borders in Brazilian biodiversity. The group is investigating the role of the microbiome in the nutrition and hydration of some plants in the "Rupestrian Grasslands" biome and how it can be used in new agricultural varieties. "This clears a new horizon for science, for biotechnology and for the conservation of such hotspots of biodiversity", Arruda concludes. "Rupestrian Grasslands" are regions located in the center of Brazil that hosts plants that developed under severe drought conditions and in nutrient-poor soils. About GCCRC The Genomics for Climate Change Research Center (GCCRC) aims to develop technologies to increase plant tolerance to stresses caused by global climate change. The result of a partnership between Embrapa and Unicamp, the Center is funded by the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp) through the Engineering Research Centre Program. It is located in Campinas, at the university campus. Learn more on the website for GCCRC.