Combatting potato soft rot with free-living phagocytes

Our need:Potatoes are the fourth most consumed crop in the world, after rice, wheat, and corn. According to 2016 data from the USDA, potatoes are also one of the most important agricultural crops in the world and are the leading vegetable produced in the USA. In 2016 alone, 44B pounds of potatoes were produced in the USA with a production value of $3.9B. Moreover, potatoes readily adapt to a wide range of growing conditions, making them an ideal crop for promoting global food security.The problem:However, each year, 22% of the total potato crop is lost to disease. In 2016, 2.65 billion pounds of potatoes produced in the US were compromised due to potato diseases and shrinkage. A major contributor to this loss is bacterial soft rot. Currently, there is no effective treatment for the disease once soft rot bacteria have infected plant tissue. According to the data from the USDA, the cost of potato loss in the US alone likely exceeded $230M in 2016, devastating growers, distributors, and facilities that store potatoes.The solution:AmebaGone will develop a product to prevent soft rot of potato tubers during storage. Our approach utilizes microscopic predators called Dictyostelids, or "Dicty," which 'eat' bacteria. Acting independently, Dicty amoebae are single cells that seek out, engulf, and digest bacterial cells one by one until they are gone. Dicty amoebae can even feed on bacteria resistant to antibiotics or other conventional treatments, and bacteria protected within biofilms - structures built by bacteria to protect themselves from environmental assaults. Therefore, AmebaGone will identify specific strains of Dicty that most robustly consume bacteria that cause soft rot (Dickeya spp. and Pectobacterium spp.) and test their ability to prevent soft rot symptoms in potato tubers. This research will culminate in the first-ever treatment registered to prevent soft rot in any industry.