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Implementation

Introduction​

Agriculture has been the birthplace of human civilization, and s such remains a key factor today. To feed a growing global population, the use of fertilizers is essential. At the same time, fertilizationcan lead to the pollution of water and soil 1 2. Aside from that, phosphate is a finite resource and has to be extracted from phosphate rock in mines. Thus, phosphate has often been categorized as a limited resource 3. Still, phosphate fertilizers are being washed out by rainfall, wasting precious minerals. In the future, another great impact on agriculture will be the loss of fertile soil dueel to rising sea levs caused by climate change 4. Global food security continues to be threatened through pollution of soil and drinking water 5. To generate an upcoming prospect for sustainable agriculture and food security, our project can be a first step.

How does the system work?​

As phosphate is a finite but essential resource, we focused on improving phosphate uptake in crop plants and increasing efficiency of fertilization. The enhanced uptake of phosphate by our modified fungus should lead to a reduction in phosphate overuse and soil pollution. The aim is to harness the positive effects of phosphate fertilizers to a greater effect, rather than surrendering to wasteful fertilization practices.

High phosphate fertilizer washout rates prompt an overapplication of fertilizer, with the crop plants being unable to absorb the excess phosphate. This also hinders the soil from properly binding the mineral 6. That is where our modified fungus, "Fungilyzer", comes in. It is able to act as a buffer system for excess phosphate in the soil. As soon as there is a shortage of this nutrient in the soil, a gene initiates controlled self-destruction. This releases all the stored nutrients into the soil, nourishing the plants. This innovative approach ensures that plants can thrive in challenging conditions, and reduces the risk of crop failure even with lesser amounts of fertilizers applied..

The next step would be to modify and promote the absorption of other minerals as well, for example the essential plant nutrients nitrogen and potassium. Combined, our organism would take further steps towards a truly universal bio-fertilizer.

Why implement Fungilyzer?​

Fungilyzer is a proposal for a co-fertilizing agent, conventional inorganic fertilizers would still need to be used in conjunction with our organism, albeit in significantly lower amounts. Since both phosphate and the soil are negatively charged, phosphate ions are easily washed out, especially by precipitation.6 Not only does this result in inorganic phosphate entering waterways, but also hails economic consequences due to a waste of time and materiel (cf. Human Practice). With Fungilyzer, we could prevent these consequences and ensure both a cleaner environment with fewer eutrophication and a more economically feasible fertilizing solution.

High Phosphate conditions

In high phosphate conditions, Fungilyzer will take up excess phosphate for later release.

Low Phosphate conditions

In low phosphate conditions, Fungilyzer will release previously strored phosphate by iducing cell lysis to ensure plant survival.

Real World Implementation​

Taking into account the experience of stakeholders we discussed our project with, it is especially important to go through several statistically valid tests before implementing Fungilyzer into the real world. Experts also stressed the importance of conducting further tests accounting for different specific environmental conditions such as variation in soil type and climate. The biggest incentive to actually use a system like Fungilyzer is the prospect of economic advantages when compared to conventional fertilizing strategies. It is important to stress that the conditions in vitro are completely different from those in vivo. Many environmental or interfering factors that exist in a natural environment cannot be properly simulated in the laboratory without considerable effort. Testing in a closed greenhouse system with an artificially created realistic environment with multiple replicates would be necessary to start a scale up process. Next, testing in research field installations would allow a verification of functions under most realistic circumstances.

Safety Aspects 7​

To uphold safe and responsible use of a system like Fungilyzer, there are several aspects to consider.

  1. Fungilyzer must not pose any risk to damage human health or the environment for farmers to use it without strict regulations.

  2. Our fungus must not be able to form spores so that controlled use is possible.

  3. Fungilyzer must not spread into the environment or displace wildtype organisms in the soil.

For information on our approach to safety and security, please refer to this section.

  1. Withers, P.J.A.; Neal, C.; Jarvie, H.P.; Doody, D.G. Agriculture and Eutrophication: Where Do We Go from Here? Sustainability 2014, 6, 5853-5875. https://doi.org/10.3390/su6095853↩
  2. Niño-Savala, Andrea Giovanna, et al. "Cadmium pollution from phosphate fertilizers in arable soils and crops: An overview." Front. Agric. Sci. Eng 6 (2019): 419-430.↩
  3. C.J. Dawson, J. Hilton, Fertiliser availability in a resource-limited world: Production and recycling of nitrogen and phosphorus, Food Policy, Volume 36, Supplement 1, 2011, Pages S14-S22, ISSN 0306-9192, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2010.11.012.↩
  4. A high-end estimate of sea-level rise for practitioners: R. S. W. van de Wal, R. J. Nicholls, D. Behar, K. McInnes, D. Stammer, J. A. Lowe, J. A. Church, R. DeConto, X. Fettweis, H. Goelzer, M. Haasnoot, I. D. Haigh, J. Hinkel, B. P. Horton, T. S. James, A. Jenkins, G. LeCozannet, A. Levermann, W. H. Lipscomb, B. Marzeion, F. Pattyn, T. Payne, T. Pfeffer, S. F. Price, H. Seroussi, S. Sun, W. Veatch, K. White, Earth Future.↩
  5. Khan, M. N., et al. "Fertilizers and their contaminants in soils, surface and groundwater." Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene 5 (2018): 225-240.↩
  6. Holtan, H., Kamp-Nielsen, L., Stuanes, A.O. (1988). Phosphorus in Soil, Water and Sediment: An Overview. In: Persson, G., Jansson, M. (eds) Phosphorus in Freshwater Ecosystems. Developments in Hydrobiology, vol 48. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3109-1_3↩
  7. Gentechnikgesetz in der Fassung der Bekanntmachung vom 16. Dezember 1993 (BGBl. I S. 2066), das zuletzt durch Artikel 8 Absatz 7 des Gesetzes vom 27. September 2021 (BGBl. I S. 4530) geändert worden ist [§ 4. 1-2, §7. 1-2, §11, §14, §16b-d, §32, §34]↩