Hello everyone. I hope you are well.
Have you noticed that we are about to have the Labour Day weekend? How did that happen? Have you been gardening? I have, and also doing some reading.
We gardeners who observe plants,
learn about plants and soil, labour in and love our gardens sometimes begin to
think we are "on top of things" or understand what is happening in
that realm.
And then we run across a
study like the one below, and are humbled by the complexity of the life-web
that supports our gardens and us.
Researchers led by Prof.
Harsh Bais, at the University of Delaware, have published a study of how the
bacterium Bacillus subtilis, which
lives in the soil, makes a connection with plant hormones, which then signal plant
leaves, stems, and petals to close stoma when there are harmful pathogens
trying to enter. This stops pathogens
from entering the plant and becoming a systemic stressor (possibly killing the
plant).
How cool is that, eh?!
Interesting too is that
drought conditions can also start the sequence between the soil born bacterium,
plant hormones and stoma closure.
The research used a modest little plant, mouse eared cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), which looks like a "weed" of the sort we'd take out of our gardens, but which is probably welcome in a healthy meadow mix of plants for animal fodder.
Of several soil bacteria
tested (of the very many that there are!), the researchers determined that only
the Bacillis subtilis triggered the beneficial reaction sequence that occurs in
the soil plant web.
Phys.org reports that the
study underscores "both the importance of root-based processes in plant
defense and the potential for bolstering plant immunity naturally through the
emerging field of probiotics." ("Probiotics" are "live microorganisms
that are thought to be beneficial to the host organism."*)
In other words, do all you
can to encourage healthy soil so you'll have healthy plants.
In Prof. Bais' words: "...
there is increasing commercial interest in inoculating crop seeds with
beneficial bacteria to reduce pathogen infection. 'Just as you can boost your
immune system, plants also could be supercharged for immunity.'"
I think of the soil web as
"wholistic" in the sense of there being many, many parts which are
together greater than the sum of the individual parts. I also have great respect for the abilities and detail-orientation of people in the sciences. Balancing the "whole" and the detail is an ongoing dance.
Here, a researcher
spends time separating out many factors (soil bacteria), finds only one that
triggers a reaction (and admits to only knowing 5% overall of what the one
does) and then wonders what place this one factor might play in treatment application for crop betterment.
Is it just our human
nature to be awed by the small amazing things we can discover, and to hope that
the one small thing can be applied to the larger scope difficulties we try so
hard to solve?
You might
want to read the study summary and have a think on these matters yourself.
Wishing you healthy soil, new
discoveries, and happy gardening!
Why's Woman
Researchers show how probiotics boost plant immunity
August 27, 2012 by Tracey Bryant Physics
News website website
The article has video and
micrograph images of what happens
Adabidopsis thaliana, mouse eared cress - Wikipedia entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabidopsis_thaliana
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