Thursday, May 5, 2011: 10:30 AM
Willow A-B, 2nd fl (Sheraton Seattle)
Daniel van der Lelie1, Xiao Wu2, Wei Zhu2, Lee Newman3, Jaco Vangronsveld4 and Safiyh Taghavi5, (1)Center for Agriculture and Environmental Biotechnology, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, (2)Department of Applied Mathematics & Statistics, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY, (3)College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, NY, (4)Cmk, Universiteit Hasselt, Diepenbeek, Belgium, (5)Biology, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY
Poplar
is considered the model tree species for bioenergy feedstock production, carbon sequestration and phytoremediation. Plants, however, live in close association with microorganisms that can help to improve the sustainable growth of their host on marginal soils, which minimal input of agricultural resources. For instance, the plant growth promoting endophytic bacterium
Enterobacter sp. 638 can improve the growth of poplar on marginal soils by as much as 50%. The primary mechanisms by which plant growth promotion takes place is via stimulation of the growth and development of a healthy root system. As a result, plants become more efficient in the uptake of water and nutrients, thus requiring lower inputs of fertilizer and water. Furthermore,
Enterobacter sp. 638 was shown to induce systemic drought tolerance in poplar, as well as improved resistance against pathogenic fungi causing rust.
Analysis of the Enterobacter sp. 638 genome sequence, combined with metabolite analysis and whole transcriptome sequencing, pointed to a remarkable interaction between this bacterium and its poplar host with the endophyte responsible of the production of several phytohormones, whose production depended on the presence of plant synthesized compounds, such as sucrose.
The availability of the genome sequence, combined with metabolome and transcriptome analysis, provides a better understanding of the synergistic interactions between poplar and its growth promoting endophyte Enterobacter sp. 638. This information is currently being exploited to improve establishment and sustainable production of poplar as an energy feedstock on marginal, non-agricultural soils using endophytic bacteria as growth promoting agents.
