Synthetic Biology Approaches to Engineering Microbial Consortia for Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Synthetic biology gives novel approaches to developing microbial consortia to enhance the crop productivity and sustainability. The paper is a review of published evidence of consortia that includes nitrogen-fixing Rhizobia, phosphate-solubilizing Pseudomonas, and drought-resilient Bacillus strains that have synthetic promoters and quorum-sensing circuits. Greenhouse and field experiments indicate gains of 15 to 30 per cent in yield, 20 to 40 per cent in reducing nitrogen fertilizer and 15 to 20 per cent improvement in drought resistance of genetically modified crops over the traditional treatments. The results of engineered consortia were always better than the single-strain inoculants in terms of stability, flexibility and scalability. These results show how synthetic biology can be used to provide next-generation biofertilizers which would decrease the use of chemicals but still promote sustainable and resilient agriculture.