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Episode transcription:
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Drew Lyon: Hello, welcome to the WSU Wheat Beat podcast. I’m your host, Drew Lyon, and I want to thank you for joining me as we explore the world of small grains production and research at Washington State University. In each episode, I speak with researchers from WSU and the USDA-ARS to provide you with insights into the latest research on wheat and barley production.
If you enjoy the WSU Wheat Beat podcast, do us a favor and subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast app and leave us a review so others can find the show too.
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My guest today is Anita Paneru. Anita is a Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Maren Friesen’s lab at Washington State University in Pullman. She holds a B.S. in agricultural science and an M.S. in plant pathology from Tribhuvan University in Nepal. During her master’s program, her research was focused on the biological control of rice diseases, specifically exploring the efficacy of native Trichoderma isolates against seedling blight.
At WSU, her current research explores the interactions between soil microbiomes and plants using electrochemical methods and synthetic microbial communities to better understand these relationships.
Hello, Anita.
Anita Paneru: Hi, Drew.
Drew Lyon: Welcome to the show. I’d like you to tell us a little bit about what synthetic microbial communities are–I think you refer to them occasionally as “SynComs”–and how do they differ from, say, a natural community of microorganisms?
Anita Paneru: Yeah. So, basically synthetic microbial communit[ies] are like artificially designed groups of microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, or archaea–those are assembled in lab to simplify or control and mimic the different aspects of a natural microbial ecosystem. So, these microbial communities or as I like to say, SynComs, are constructed to study the interactions, functions, and dynamics among microbes under controlled conditions. So, basically the key features of those SynComs are like defined composition, [which let’s the researcher] know exactly which species are present, like these are the simplified models where we can reduce the complexity as in the natural ecosystems, and we can also control the interactions. Microbes can be selected for a specific trait so the researcher–or we can manipulate the environmental conditions, nutrient inputs, or genetic features.
So, for your second question, like, how do they differ from the natural ecosystem? So, they differ primarily in their design complexity and purpose. While SynComs are deliberately constructed in [a] lab with [a] known and limited set of microbial species, natural communities are spontaneously through ecological and evolutionary process[es] and contain vast numbers of species. So, SynComs are typically simpler, making them easier to control and study. They are often assembled with a specific goal in mind of the researcher, such as modeling microbial interactions, testing ecological hypotheses, or producing some useful compounds. So, in contrast, like natural communities are highly complex in dynamics with intricate and unpredictable interactions shaped by environmental factors. So, overall, like SynComs are engineered communities, while natural communities reflect the full richness and complexity of microbial life in [the] real world.
Drew Lyon: Okay, so basically to simplify it so you can study it. What’s lost when you do it that way? Because as you mentioned in the environment there’s lots of interactions, lots of different things going, so I can see where it allows you to study that particular species or SynCom, but how transferable is the knowledge to the environment do you think?
Anita Paneru: So, basically, like, there are a lot of challenges there and we lose some interactions happening in the natural communities. But we try to mimic everything as in the real ecosystem in SynComs and try to make, like, the kind of similar system as a natural ecosystem, and we can just use those communities for our specific goal and just reducing the complexity and variability happening in the natural ecosystem.
Drew Lyon: Yeah. The soil is a very complex thing, so I can understand why you’d want to do that. So, how do you create these SynComs? How are they designed? How do you control them in the lab?
Anita Paneru: Basically, like, SynComs are designed and controlled in lab through precise and step-by-step processes. So, first we select the specific microbial strain based on their traits, functions, or ecological relevance. So, it basically depends on what’s your goal. So, these microbes are usually well-characterized, easy to culture, and genetically tractable. So, each strain in lab is grown individually to ensure purity and viability.
Then those cultured microbes are assembled into a defined community, often in a specific ratio, depending on [the] experimental goal. Researcher controls–or we try to control the environmental factors such as temperature, pH, oxygen, and nutrients to mimic the natural conditions like those in gut, soil, and plant roots. So, monitoring tools for the microbial community composition in SynComs such as optical density measurement, fluorescent markers, RNA and DNA seek are used to track growth, interactions, and metabolic output.
So, in many cases, like in recent research also, genetic engineering is also used to modify those strains for specific functions, such as turning on reporter gene or disabling metabolic pathways. So, this allows us to test hypotheses of the microbial behavior and adjust [the] community as per our need with high precision, making SynCom as a powerful tool for studying microbial ecology and their functions.
Drew Lyon: Okay. So, can you describe some of the applications of SynComs in research or industry, maybe even an example of what you might be doing with them in your Ph.D. program?
Anita Paneru: Yeah. So, SynComs have been [a] powerful tool in science and agriculture. So broadly, they are used as the simplified and the reduced complexity microbial ecosystem, which helps researchers to explore how microbes interact, how they affect health, and how they can be engineered for useful functions like cleaning the pollutions or producing biofuels. Yes, they play an important role in medicines, such as developing probiotics or personalized treatment that restore a healthy gut microbiome. And in agriculture like these engineered microbes help improve nutrient uptake, protect crop from pests and disease, and help plants tolerate stress, like drought or high and low temperature. Unlike chemical fertilizers and pesticides, SynComs work in harmony with [the] natural ecosystem reducing environmental impact while boosting yield.
So, my research came somewhere in between. So, we are trying to explore the rhizospheric bacterial strains from the wheat rhizosphere and making a SynCom out of it and trying to explore the SynCom efficiency in plant health and plant growth promotion in wheat using some novel electrochemical methods. So, our ultimate goal is to uncover some innovative strategy to know a mechanism linking plants with the SynCom electrochemistry interactions and to explore the dynamics of those plant microbiome relationships.
So, yeah, SynComs are being adapted by farmers, as well, for their commercial agriculture for more ecofriendly and resilient approaches for farming–making an exciting step towards the future of sustainable agriculture.
Drew Lyon: Okay, so some idea that these SynComs could be mass produced and put out in some kind of commercial product that people would treat seed with or treat the plants with that would improve the rhizosphere–so the root-soil interaction. Is that the idea?
Anita Paneru: Yes. Like, some of fungus, like Trichoderma, and some bacteria, like Pseudomonas bacillus. Those are being used commercially and people have made some bio product out of it. Yeah.
Drew Lyon: Okay. So, the idea of the synthetic communities is to really hone in on what the mechanisms are and then–so it’s useful in the lab, but it also has potential use in commercial production out in the field.
Anita Paneru: Yes, you are right. You get it.
Drew Lyon: All right. I’m a little slow sometimes, so it’s good to know that I actually caught what you’re telling me.
Well, this is really interesting work. I had–somebody I know heard you give a seminar and thought you did a very nice job and so encouraged me to ask you to come to the show and be a guest. And I’m glad they did.
This is interesting work, and our growers are likely going to see some benefit down the road. Do you have a website or something in your lab where people can come and take a look at what you’re doing there in the way of SynComs?
Anita Paneru: So, I don’t think we have a website, but like, I can just send my email address, like my email address is anita.paneru@wsu.edu. So, you can just email me or you can just visit me at [the] Plant Sciences Building. I’m [on the] third floor and if you want to see my work and talk about this more, I’m happy to talk to everyone. Yeah.
Drew Lyon: Okay. We’ll put your contact information in the show notes so people can get ahold of you if they want to follow up on this discussion here today.
Thank you very much, Anita. Good to have you on the show.
Anita Paneru: Yeah. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I loved it.
Drew Lyon:
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Thanks for joining us and listening to the WSU Wheat Beat podcast. If you like what you hear don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast app. If you have questions or topics you’d like to hear on future episodes, please email me at drew.lyon — that’s lyon@wsu.edu — (drew.lyon@wsu.edu). You can find us online at smallgrains.wsu.edu and on Facebook and Twitter [X] @WSUSmallGrains. The WSU Wheat Beat podcast is a production of CAHNRS Communications and the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University.
I’m Drew Lyon, we’ll see you next time.
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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by guests of this podcast are their own and does not imply Washington State University’s endorsement.