AWCSC "Agrotechnologies of the Future"
The National Research University of Agricultural Microbiology is Russia's leading scientific center and one of the world leaders in the field of studying plant-microbial interactions and soil microbiology. These studies form the basis of the projects carried out by FSBCI under the leadership of the director of the Institute, D.B.N. V.E. Tsyganov in the consortium of AWCSC "Agrotechnologies of the Future". The objectives of these studies are to develop the molecular and cellular foundations of plant-microbial symbiosis, as well as its ecological and evolutionary genetics, aimed at constructing symbiosystems for agricultural and environmental purposes, including the creation of biological products for organic farming and adaptive crop production.
The work is carried out within the framework of 13 projects combined in 3 directions.
- Agrobiotechnologies of soil fertility management in Russia in the interests of highly productive agriculture with minimal environmental risk (10 projects). The genetic resources of agricultural microorganisms have been studied and molecular markers linked to economically valuable traits have been identified. Promising genetically engineered strains have been created for production and technologies for the production of biological products have been developed to increase plant productivity and soil fertility. Agricultural products obtained using microbiological preparations have higher nutritional and feed characteristics than products obtained using mineral fertilizers. Technologies are being developed to create fundamentally new drugs that ensure high plant yields based on the complementary interaction of specially selected microbial genotypes isolated from relict plants. A bioinformatic analysis of soil and symbiotic metagenomes has been carried out, providing control of their phytostimulating and environment-forming functions. New strains of rhizobacteria have been obtained that can increase plant resistance to biotic (pathogens, phytophages) and abiotic (drought, soil pollution with heavy metals) stresses. Cellular and molecular markers of the influence of various pesticides on the formation and functioning of legume-rhizobial symbiosis are revealed. Microbiological technologies of biodegradation of plant residues and its transformation into humic substances have been created. Methodological approaches have been developed to create highly effective microbial consortia for the decomposition of crop residues. Highly effective cellulose-decomposing consortia were obtained not only from soils with high biodegradation potential (chernevaya taiga), but also from soils with low potential (Vologda Oblast).
- Accelerated breeding of high-yielding and resistant varieties and hybrids of plants with specified quality characteristics (2 projects). Using original evolutionary models, methods of molecular breeding and symbiotic engineering have been developed aimed at designing plants that, forming agronomically valuable symbioses with microorganisms, are able to form high yields with minimal use of environmentally hazardous chemical fertilizers and protective equipment. The selection of target genes for genetic editing aimed at increasing the symbiotic efficiency of symbioses formed by seed peas has been carried out. This approach will make it possible to create legume varieties that specifically select highly effective rhizobia strains from natural populations. By transferring genes from legumes to non-legume plants, a technology is being developed to create new symbioses of nitrogen-fixing microorganisms with various types of crops.
- Creation of safe, high-quality, functional food and feed products (1 project). Proteomic technologies for evaluating and increasing the nutritional value of plants, which have no analogues in world practice, have been created based on the analysis of amyloid forms of spare seed proteins. For the first time, the presence of genetic variability of peas in the content of protease-resistant amyloid aggregates in seeds has been shown, which creates an opportunity for the development of fundamentally new methods of plant breeding aimed at increasing the nutritional value of seeds.
Detailed information about the activities of the FSBCI ARRIAM in the AWCSC "Agrotechnologies of the Future" is available on the website:
https://future-agro.ru/
We ask all interested persons, as well as organizations interested in acting as industrial partners, to contact Vladimir Alexandrovich Zhukov, a member of the working group of the AWCSC "Agrotechnologies of the Future".
vzhukov@arriam.ru
