Puna Bio extremophile microbes survive, revive depleted soil – TechCrunch
Summary
The farming industry spends tons of money on artificial means of reinvigorating soil, but an all-natural solution may already exist: beneficial microbes that have evolved to thrive in extreme environments. So although we have seen modified microbes being put to work in agriculture, its more of an augmentation of their existing, near-miraculous ability to provide growing plants with crucial nutrients. This means even depleted soil can host happy bacteria, since theyre used to even more difficult climates.What we found is like what happens when an athlete trains at high altitude, said Levis. Youre really putting a very small microbe population into the soil, and because they stick very close to the plant it doesnt really affect the rest of the population.It does seem intuitive that a bacterium that produces free nitrogen or phosphorus under one set of soil and climate conditions might do so totally differently from how another bacterium does in totally dissimilar conditions. So the two types of organisms can combine and perhaps even synergize their effects when functioning simultaneously.The $3.7 million seed round was led by At One Ventures and Builders VC, with participation from SP Ventures and Air Capital, as well as existing investors IndieBio (SOSV), GLOCAL and Grid Exponential.Levis said the first move the company will make with this cash infusion is launching their soybean treatment in Argentina, then expand to Brazil and the U.S., which between the three account for 80% of the market.