Kerry company working to improve crop tolerance to climate change stresses

BioAtlantis manufactures plant biostimulant products using natural compounds derived from renewable marine and terrestrial resources, including seaweed. Picture: Domnick Walsh

A Kerry-based biotechnology company is a partner in a new European research project focusing on developing novel technologies to improve crop tolerances to stresses associated with climate change.

BioAtlantis manufactures plant biostimulant products using natural compounds derived from renewable marine and terrestrial resources, including seaweed.

Biostimulants increase plant growth, and strengthen crops to make them more resistant to disease.

Plant biostimulants include amino and humic acids, seaweed and other plant extracts and beneficial microorganisms, BioAtlantis explained.

Biostimulants typically have very low nutrient content and have different mechanisms to NPK fertilisers and micronutrients, and are complementary to fertilisers and facilitate better uptake, according to the company.

Biostimulants represent an alternative to synthetic agrochemicals and can sustainably improve crop productivity.

The company has developed the ‘AgriPrime’ portfolio of products for application at different physiological stages of crops, which are produced in a highly automated facility in Tralee.

The products are highly concentrated which, according to the company, reduces packing, transport and recycling costs and the application rate is very low, at one to five litres per hectare.

BioAtlantis said that its products are compliant with organic standards, residue-free, and are safe to the environment, pollinators and end users alike.

The company is now a partner in a new international network of leading scientists, focused on the development of ‘molecular priming’ technologies to enhance crop yield under stressful conditions caused by climate change.

CropPrime

The four-year CropPrime project is funded up to €1m under the EU's Horizon-Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme.

The project will involve the development of plant biostimulant products, using natural compounds sustainably derived.

The project is focused on developing "RNA-based fungicides to reduce fungal infection in crops".

A sustainable alternative to synthetic fungicides, they would benefit "humans, pollinators, and the environment", BioAtlantis explained.

The company said that the novel RNA-based fungicides will target fungal diseases in crops such as tomato and strawberry.

According to the company, it is expected that the findings of this research will lead to the development of "a new generation of sustainable agri-tech products that will help crop growers to ‘prime’ and protect their crops against stressful, adverse weather conditions such as drought, heat, cold and water-logging, stresses that are increasing in incidence due to climate change".

In collaboration with its partners in the project, BioAtlantis will "elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying plant stress, and will deliver novel ‘molecular priming’ agents to counteract stress-induced crop yield losses".

Those involved in the project are from around the globe, and are experts in the areas of: plant systems biology; chemistry; genetics; and biostimulant technology.

Growth potential

BioAtlantis chief executive John T O’Sullivan explained that crops "suffer from variations in weather patterns; stress in crops is caused by cold, drought, heat, or waterlogging".

Across the main cereal crops that are grown across the globe — sorghum, wheat, oats, barley, and rice — only 20% achieve their "genetic ability".

"70% of crop yield losses are due to abiotic stress — cold, drought, heat and water logging; while just 10% are lost due to biotic stresses," Mr O’Sullivan said.

"Even in well-developed systems, the majority of crops only achieve 70% to 80% of their genetic growth potential."

Losses due to abiotic stress are due to the variability of weather patterns — and while this "has been happening for years", Mr O’Sullivan said, it "is now being exacerbated by climate change".

"In the last 100 years, the focus has been on solving the problem of biotic stresses, but losses due to abiotic stress are increasing," he continued.

According to BioAtlantis, weather extremes – abiotic stresses – cause crops to produce excess levels of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), such as hydrogen peroxide.

"Low levels of ROS are beneficial to crops, but elevated levels are toxic and negatively impacts plant growth, thus leading to crop yield losses," the company said.

Defence system

BioAtlantis produces SuperFifty Prime, a product that controls ROS production in plants, which Mr O’Sullivan explained protects it for 10 to 15 days post-application.

The technology works by modulating gene expression and inducing a series of stress tolerance mechanisms in crops.

BioAtlantis’ focus is to "induce defence against the abiotic stresses", Mr O’Sullivan said.

"While animals and humans have an immune system, crops have a defence system — basically, it's very similar; so, if you can stimulate certain genes to alert the plant that there is a potential stress coming, then they can prepare for that stress and that's what our product is doing," he explained.

"It's priming the crop, and priming is basically modulating the gene response into the crop so that they’re prepared, that there is a warning signal given that there's stress coming."

According to Mr O’Sullivan, over the decades, there has been an "over-dependence on synthetic products for plant protection".

"They have brought huge benefits to the world, but also collateral damage," he said.

That day is gone — and I’m not saying we’ll suddenly go from A to B, but you have to achieve sustainability.

"There is a growing population worldwide – so crops must be grown in a more sustainable manner to feed that population."

And despite the promising advances in the technology, this area of work has not been without its challenges, particularly on the regulatory side.

BioAtlantis recently came under scrutiny for licensing requirements for seaweed harvesting with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage saying it was examining reports of alleged unlicensed seaweed harvesting in the Kenmare River.

The company said recently that it "applied for a license to hand harvest Ascophyllum nodosum seaweed in Kenmare Bay on the 27th June 2022, however we do not know when the application will be processed".

"The seaweed is currently harvested by hand in an environmentally friendly manner, in line with traditional methods," the company said in a recent statement.

Mr O’Sullivan told the Irish Examiner that as "an island nation, we have seaweed around the coast, it's a material that's not used to the optimum".

"We’ve invested heavily to use that seaweed, a key material.

We’re in a long-term game, people that are most concerned about harvesting this seaweed in a controllable manner is us.

"Seaweed around our coast has the serious potential of being turned into something of value; the opportunity to bring solutions to world problems is huge from a small country like Ireland.

"The opportunities are there, we have put the science and research into it, and all we want to do is get access to raw material."

New roadmap

Meanwhile, Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) this week set out a roadmap for the development of a "sustainable and profitable Irish seaweed aquaculture sector".

Seaweed is "increasingly being viewed as an important sustainable raw material, containing many active substances for use in different industries including, food production, pharma and agriculture", BIM said, and its commercial cultivation has "increased significantly" over the course of the last two decades.

Annual global seaweed output is now in excess of 35m wet tonnes, 97% of which is cultivated biomass, with most of the farmed seaweed is from Asia, places like China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, and the Philippines.

According to BIM's chief executive Caroline Bocquel, Ireland's "long coastline and clean, cold waters present the ideal conditions to cultivate seaweed, and to sustainably develop this crop that is highly resource efficient, requiring minimal resource input".