Today, agriculture faces pressure from soil degradation and the climate crisis. Our oceans can serve as a large laboratory for solutions to help plants withstand such stresses. Marine biotechnology, which has contributed significantly to the pharmaceutical sector, has the potential to disrupt the fertilizer and pesticide markets.
Prof Radhakrishnan Manikkam of the Centre for Drug Discovery and Development at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology says marine microbes hold promise in agricultural biotechnology. He has worked on isolating actinobacteria — the organisms responsible for numerous antibiotics — from environments that haven’t been fully explored, such as the deep sea. Unlike terrestrial microbes, the marine variants are adapted to survive highly saline environments, pressure and temperature, making them ideal catalysts for plant growth and stress resilience in crops.
Today, agriculture faces pressure from soil degradation and the climate crisis. Our oceans can serve as a large laboratory for solutions to help plants withstand such stresses. Marine biotechnology, which has contributed significantly to the pharmaceutical sector, has the potential to disrupt the fertilizer and pesticide markets.
Prof Radhakrishnan Manikkam of the Centre for Drug Discovery and Development at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology says marine microbes hold promise in agricultural biotechnology. He has worked on isolating actinobacteria — the organisms responsible for numerous antibiotics — from environments that haven’t been fully explored, such as the deep sea. Unlike terrestrial microbes, the marine variants are adapted to survive highly saline environments, pressure and temperature, making them ideal catalysts for plant growth and stress resilience in crops.
Read more here