Activating plant pathways for stress response
Valagro’s biostimulant Megafol is formulated to stimulate plant response to environmental stress conditions and, this season, is marking the significant milestone of its 40th anniversary.
Tamzin Lee, North Island Territory Manager and Valagro Specialist, says that over the last 40 years, Megafol has continuously shown it benefits numerous horticultural crops, and growers’ reliance on the product has increased. “Many growers include Megafol into their standard crop programmes, particularly at key plant growth stages and times of heightened stress.”
Valagro’s continuous research and development efforts have ensured product efficacy continues to strengthen. They utilise innovative technologies to develop an understanding of the effect of Megafol on activating highly specific plant physiological responses, and these include:
» Genomics science as the core of their product development, mapping the entire genome system of a model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana (mouse-ear cress). This has enabled a detailed understanding of the relationship between individualplant genes and how they influence plant physiology.
» Phenomics analysis enables an understanding of the plant’s physical response to products. Treated and control plants are subject to simulated environmental conditions, such as heat and drought, or cold and wet. The plant response is analysed through measurement of plant growth parameters, such as plant biomass, photosynthetic activity and plant water content.
» Transcriptomics technology allows for an understanding of gene expression patterns. It complements what can be learned from genomics, and provides an understanding of the genome or the complete set of genes within a plant cell, and how Valagro products, such as Megafol, influence specific plant genes. Alongside this, transcriptomics studies reveal to what level this gene expression is occurring.
Tamzin gives an example: “Transcriptomics studies1 carried out internally at Valagro have shown the percentage of upregulated genes within a plant when treated by Megafol vs untreated (Table 1).”
Metabolomics is the latest technology utilised by Valagro, which enables an understanding of the response of the plant on a cellular level, more specifically to identify the levels of metabolites within plant cells which are produced by the plant in response to a stress event. Valagro laboratory studies2 have shown plants treated with Megafol produced a lower level of metabolites than untreated plants. This highlights the effectiveness of Megafol in improving plant tolerance to environmental stress.
Tamzin says, “Megafol is involved in the activation of differentially expressed genes, and we’ve been able to prove the gene expression level increase in a treated plant, versus an untreated (Table 1). Genomic studies have identified these genes to be related to the plant’s response to environmental stress, proving Megafol’s effect on the plant.”
Your local Fruitfed Supplies Technical Horticultural Representative can assist with more information about Megafol and how its application during times of plant stress benefits your crop.
1 Valagro transcriptomics study, Megafol upregulation of genes of Arabidopsis thaliana plants.
2 Valagro metabolomic study of drought stress on Arabidopsis thaliana plants treated with Megafol.
