Washington: They may be too small, but according to a recent study, bedbugs can help protect the world’s chocolate supply.
Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama found that exposing baby cocoa plants to the microbes of healthy adult cocoa plants halved the plant’s chances of becoming infected with the cocoa pathogen, Phytopthora palmivora.
“When human babies pass through the birth canal, their bodies collect a host of bacteria and fungi from their mother, these microbes strengthen their immune system and make the baby healthier,” said author Natalie Christian of the University Of Indiana. “We demonstrate that an analogous process occurs in plants: adult cocoa trees also pass along protective microbes to baby cocoa plants.”
STRI researchers have investigated the interactions between plants and their microbes over the past 20 years. They were the first to demonstrate that in tropical forests, where cocoa grows, each leaf is home to hundreds of different fungi and bacteria, and that the application of useful microbes to leaves in field treatments protected cocoa from disease.
Researchers found that specific species of fungi, such as Colletotrichum tropicale, protect plants from their enemies – the pathogens and insects that eat them. STRI research has also shown that, as with humans, microbes stimulate the ability of plants to defend themselves and have demonstrated the magnitude and extent of endophytic effects on host gene expression.
“We discovered it both by the cultivation of leaf microbes and by the direct sequencing of fungal DNA from plant tissues, that one of the most common fungi in cocoa seedlings was its protector, Colletotricum tropicale. Of young plants grown with leaf litter from healthy cocoa adults, “Christian said. “What this means is that C. tropicale from the leaf litter of adult trees is able to quickly get into young leaves and expel other microbes, including pathogens, thus preventing them from colonizing.”
“Not only did it demonstrate to us that starting seeds surrounded by leaves of healthy adults can greatly improve their health – a potentially very important result for the cacao industry – for the first time, we are beginning to understand how microbial communities gather cocoa leaves and other Species in the wild and what may influence their ability to protect plants, “said co-author Allen Herre. The study appears in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
