Beijing, China
October 23, 2006
by Hawk Jia, SciDev.Net
Chinese scientists have developed a bacterium-based product that
can boost plants' growth while protecting them from harmful
fungal infection.
The research was posted on the website of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences
(CAS) on Monday (16 October) after it was evaluated by its
Institute of Botany.
Although the research is still at an early stage, the
researchers hope that further trials of the product in a variety
of crops will identify its usefulness for dry regions around the
globe.
Called IB12, the product is made of Bacillus subtilis — a
bacterium widely used as an additive in the fodder industry to
improve digestion — and compounds that help the bacterium grow.
Fungal infection can seriously harm plants, causing severe
disease such as leaf blast in cotton and potato crops.
B. subtilis can counter the action of fungi in a number of ways.
In soil, it has been found to swiftly bind to areas on plant
roots infected by fungi. Here it competes more powerfully for
nutrition, starving the fungi.
The bacterium can also secrete chemicals that inhibit fungal
growth, as well as hormones that stimulate the growth of its
host plants.
Li Jiudi of the CAS Institute of Botany has developed IB12 over
the past decade, researching varieties of B. subtilis local to
many parts of western China and identifying compounds that boost
its growth. Li has also studied how to purify the bacterium so
that the biological product produces consistent results.
Xu Zhaoliang, also at the botany institute, chaired the group
evaluating IB12.
He found that IB12 can reduce fungal diseases in cotton by 20-25
per cent, and increase its output by over 12 per cent.
While research on the effect of IB12 on fungal diseases in
potatoes is at too early a stage to see definite results, Xu and
his team have already noted that IB12-treated potato tubers are
much bigger than those not treated with the bacterium.
There have been some previous studies on B. subtilis, but IB12
is the first to be adapted to the environmental conditions in
western China.
It might be among the first B. subtilis-based products to be
commercialised in China, Xu told SciDev.Net. |