Transplanted microbiota offers hope in fight against cotton disease threat
18 Mar 2025
A disease that has devastated cotton crops worldwide is being tackled by a novel method of plant transplantation.
Cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) has been blamed for an estimated one third reduction in yields in the 1990s, which in turn threatened collapse for Pakistan’s vital textile industry.
Now researchers at the country’s Forman Christian College University have teamed with colleagues at the University of Glasgow to come up with the new, experimental treatment.
Traditionally chemical options such as salicylic acid and more recently, genetic modifications, have been employed to tackle the disease but with limited success.
Instead, the researchers have transferred microbiota from one hardy cotton species to the variant commonly used for fabric production.
The rhizospheric (root-associated) and phyllospheric (leaf-associated) microbiota are taken from Gossypium arboretum, a species unsuitable for fabric but naturally resistant to the blight.
Ayesha Badar, first author and PhD researcher for the study published in Communications Biology, explained:
“Organ transplantation has always been mainstreamed in human health and our minds often jump to organ donations in humans. But what we thought of was… what if plants can have their own version of transplants as well? Not of organs, but of something equally vital, and that is their microbiome.”
Bioinformatics expert Dr. Umer Zeeshan Ijaz from Glasgow university’s James Watt School of Engineering analysed the microbial interactions, with the benefit of advanced sequencing techniques. This enabled decoding of the microbial communities responsible for disease suppression.
Early results suggest the root associated microbiota effected a significant reduction in diseases, said the research study. It also appeared to enhance growth rates in plants treated.
Professor and Dean of Postgraduate Studies at Forman Christian College Dr. Kauser Abdulla Malik spent decades tackling cotton leaf curl virus as director of Pakistan’s National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE).
“Now, by leveraging the power of beneficial microbes, we are developing a sustainable, biological solution to improve crop resilience. This research marks a shift from conventional disease management to harnessing nature’s own defence mechanisms," he said.
Pic: Trisha Downing
