Desarrollo de una comunidad microbiana sintética para inducir tolerancia a la sequía en papa (solanum tuberosum)

Abstract

Agriculture faces a growing threat due to the intensification of drought events, which affect up to fifty-five percent of global agricultural production and generate losses exceeding ten billion dollars annually. In this context, potato, a staple food in the Andean region, is highly vulnerable to water stress conditions, especially in affected areas such as Ecuador, where considerable economic losses have been recorded. In response to this problem, the overall objective of this study was to develop a synthetic microbial community from soils with a history of drought, capable of inducing tolerance to water deficits in potato plants. To this end, microorganisms were extracted from the soil, and a bacterial cocktail was formed that was metagenomically characterized. This consortium was then inoculated into potato plants grown in a greenhouse under controlled irrigation and drought conditions using a completely randomized experimental design. The results revealed that the inoculated plants had higher leaf water retention, higher proline content, more efficient recovery after rehydration, and better structural development than the controls without microorganisms. The application of adapted microbial communities represents a sustainable biotechnological alternative that improves water stress tolerance and promotes plant growth, thereby reducing the use of agrochemical inputs and increasing the resilience of potato crops to climate change.