Canada: Helpful microbes, happy plants

A large-scale microbiome project across 12 commercial hydroponic farms in Canada has been ongoing since September 2020. The project, Healthy Hydroponics, is led by Metagenom Bio Life Science, a biotechnology and genetic sequencing company based in Waterloo, Ontario, and they have been working with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs to connect growers to this study. Healthy Hydroponics aims to use DNA sequencing to first identify the baseline microbial community (microbiome), plant pathogens, and foodborne microorganisms in hydroponic systems, particularly those in the nutrient solution, leachate, and roots. From there, they are developing a curated database of pathogens and DNA markers to detect targeted pathogens in the leachate and on the roots in hydroponic systems. "To our knowledge, this is the first hydroponic microbiome project across multiple hydroponic farms of different crops," says Dr. Trevor Charles, Chief Science Officer of Metagenom Bio and ...