The Current and Future Role of Microbial Culture Collections in Food Security Worldwide

Abstract

Food security is the pillar of nutritional wellbeing for food availability, and is necessary to satisfy all physiological needs to thus maintain the general wellbeing of populations. However, global agricultural deficiencies occur due to rapid population growth, causing an increase in competition for resources; such as water, land, and energy, leading to the overexploitation of agro-ecosystems, and the inability to produce a suitable quantity of efficient food. Therefore, the development of sustainable agro-biotechnologies is vital to increase crop yield and quality, reducing the negative impacts caused by intensive non-sustainable agricultural practices. In this way, the genetic and metabolic diversity of soil and plant microbiota in agro-ecosystems are a current and promising alternative to ensure global food security. Microbial communities play an important role in the improvement of soil fertility and plant development by enhancing plant growth and health through several direct and/or indirect mechanisms. Thus, the bio-augmentation of beneficial microbes into agro-ecosystems not only generates an increase in food production but also mitigates the economic, social, and environmental issues of intensive non-sustainable agriculture. In this way, the isolation, characterization, and exploitation of preserved beneficial microbes in microbial culture collections (MCC) is crucial for the ex situ maintenance of native soil microbial ecology focused on driving sustainable food production. This review aims to provide a critical analysis of the current and future role of global MCC on sustainable food security, as providers of a large number of beneficial microbial strains with multiple metabolic and genetic traits.

Microbial genetic resources in food security to face COVID-19 pandemic

“…The use of the crop-related microbial biodiversity through the MGR of the planet is a sustainable alternative to boost food production with a high nutritional value, in the light of the problems related to the ongoing pandemic. In this sense, the preservation of MGRs is decisive to preserve the beneficial microbiota found in agroecosystems and to provide authentic, stable and biosafe biological material for the development of efficient microbial inoculants (Díaz-Rodríguez et al, 2021).…”

“…El uso de la diversidad microbiana asociadas a los cultivos, a través de los RGM del planeta, representa una alternativa sostenible para potenciar la producción de alimentos con alto valor nutricional, ante los problemas asociados a la pandemia actual. En este sentido, la conservación de los RGM es determinante para preservar la microbiota benéfica presente en los agroecosistemas y proveer material biológico auténtico, estable y bioseguro para el desarrollo de inoculantes microbianos eficientes (Díaz-Rodríguez et al, 2021).…”

“…Sin embargo, ahora es incuestionable la importancia de los estudios de diversidad para la salud humana Special Issue: Covid-19 and Plant Health, November, 2021 Mexican Journal of PHYTOPATHOLOGY Revista Mexicana de FITOPATOLOGÍA with taxonomic value for research purposes. The development of human resources with an expertise in classic and molecular microbiological management, as well as in the comprehension of plant-microorganism interactions is also a fundamental contribution (Díaz-Rodríguez et al, 2021;Soltanighias et al, 2018).…”

“…En este contexto, los centros de conservación RGM proporcionan valiosos recursos biológicos para científicos agrícolas, agroindustria y agricultores, al mantener y proveer cepas o aislados de microorganismos benéficos para diferentes cultivos agrícolas y plantaciones, cepas de referencia auténticas con valor taxonómico para fines de investigación. El desarrollo de recursos humanos expertos en manejo microbiológico clásico y molecular, y en la comprensión de las interacciones planta-microorganismo también constituye un aporte esencial (Díaz-Rodríguez et al, 2021;Soltanighias et al, 2018).…”

Sorghum-Phosphate Solubilizers Interactions: Crop Nutrition, Biotic Stress Alleviation, and Yield Optimization

“…The constantly increasing human populations and regularly declining agricultural soils have placed extra pressure on sustainable agriculture systems to eliminate human food hunger worldwide ( Díaz-Rodríguez et al, 2020 ). Globally, P fertilization is a common practice to improve sorghum production ( Gemenet et al, 2016 ), but the intemperate application or unrelenting long-term utilization of chemical-P fertilizers cause environmental pollution and reduce soil quality ( Alori et al, 2017 ; Li et al, 2020 ).…”