Global Alliance in Soil Clean-Up and Seed Yields

An alliance to increase the growth rate of grasses and other plants and remediate soil contaminated by agrochemicals has been formed by U.S. and Russian scientists. The Russian scientists are from BioChimmash, a former weapons development center, Lomonosov Moscow State University, and the Russian State Institute for Gas and Oil.
The U.S. scientists are from Dye Seed Ranch (Pomeroy, WA, USA), a seed processing company, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL, Richland, WA, USA) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The Russian scientists have developed a plant growth stimulator that is a mixture of fungi and bacteria, called Symbiont, because of the symbiotic relationship between microbes and the plant root in soil. Initial studies showed it increased the growth of grasses and many broad-leaf plants by 40% under controlled conditions. Symbiont may be able to shorten the current 18 months seed producers like Dye Seed wait after planting before harvesting their first crop. Scientists are planning a test of Symbiont with different soil types and moisture status.

"Rather than waiting 28 days for Kentucky Blue Grass seeds to germinate, that process may take only seven days with Symbiont,” said Steve Stilson, general manager of Dye Seed. The company processes and markets seed, primarily Kentucky Blue Grass. About 60% of the world's Kentucky Blue Grass is produced in the Pacific Northwest.

The Russian scientists have also developed microbes capable of remediating oil-contaminated fields, which may hold promise for industries looking for new methods to clean up agrochemicals. The microbes help break down the oil and restore the soil. Dye Seed may commercialize the oil remediation application or support further research into its potential.

The laboratory studies and subsequent verification tests that are performed at PNNL are being funded by the DOE's Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention Program (IPP), established in 1994 to create non-defense jobs for former Soviet weapons scientists by linking them with U.S. companies interested in commercializing their non-weapons technologies. "The preliminary lab results for these projects are very promising,” said Steve Stilson. "If these field tests show potential, it would be beyond my wildest dreams.”




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