By Blake Jackson
Two Penn State research teams have secured funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate how microbiomes can influence disease dynamics in agriculture. These grants, totaling $1.1 million, are part of the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.
Fabricio Vieira, leading one project, is focused on understanding the microbiome associated with mushroom development and disease suppression. “Understanding agricultural developmental microbiomes called devomes has the potential to improve agricultural production systems, human well-being and environmental health,” Vieira said. “We are studying a host that is economically and agriculturally important to Pennsylvania: Agaricus bisporus, the button mushroom that is commonly found in any grocery store.”
Francisco Dini-Andreote, leading the second project, is exploring the microbiome of disease-suppressive soils. These soils naturally resist pathogen growth and infection.
Dini-Andreote aims to understand the resilience of these soils to common agricultural practices and identify microbes that can control the pathogen Verticillium dahlia.
“There’s a diverse set of soil-borne pathogens that are difficult to control with conventional strategies, due to both chemical resistance and the pathogens developing ways to circumvent host resistance,” Francisco Dini-Andreote said. “With these challenges, efforts to develop alternative control measures are critical to alleviating the impacts of soil-borne pathogens while promoting a stable food supply system.”
Both projects have the potential to make significant contributions to sustainable agriculture. Vieira's research on mushroom devomes can improve our understanding of agricultural microbiomes as a whole.
Dini-Andreote's work on disease-suppressive soils offers a sustainable strategy to reduce chemical inputs and increase crop protection.
Photo Credit: usda
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