Sunday, February 23, 2020

How Sugar’s Bacteria Could Point the Way to More Efficient Agriculture

There’s multiple reasons why sugarcane has been a cash crop for a very very very long time.

via Smithsonian

Geneticist Paulo Arruda was mapping the microbiome of sugarcane—some 20,000 bacteria and 10,000 fungi—when he realized that some of the microorganisms were much more abundant than others. Along with the other researchers at Brazil’s Genomics for Climate Change Research Center (GCCRC), he set out to answer the question that immediately jumped to everyone’s mind: If these microorganisms managed to multiply to such high numbers, were they also helping to facilitate the growth of the sugarcane? And if so, could those microbes be harnessed to increase production of other crops?

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