By MercoPress.comA robot which categorizes soy bean plants according to their capacity to resist drought and make better use of the water resource has been developed by a bio-technology group of Mercosur researchers in Argentina, with European Union support
“Our objective was that the characterization of phenotypes and the search for genes more tolerant to drought, and more efficient in the use of water, a limited resource, would allow us to develop a soy bean cultivated in an environment with lesser rainfall which today are almost unproductive”, said Atilio Castagnaro, head agronomist from the Obispo Colombres, Tucuman, Agro-Industry Experimental Station which coordinates the BiotecSojaSur project. (Biotechnology soy bean)
The project is considered essential to make Mercosur not only the region with the largest soybean production, but also a leader in agro-industry technology.
The automatic platform that gauges the different genotypes (group of plants with similar genetic conformation, was created and developed by a team at the Argentine National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, Conicet).
“The great outcome of this project, BiotecSojaSur is having been able to build a robot or automatic platform for the massive assessment of soy bean genotypes referred to their capacity to tolerate a hydro deficit or drought”, said Castagnaro.
Everyday the robot checks simultaneously 120 pots with soy bean plants, and determines their hydro consumption, waters them with the precise volume and takes stereoscopic pictures to document growth.
“Among the practical technical results, besides scientific and theoretical advances, the project created a virtual lab not only through the computer but also through a network of info and resources exchange which actually works and helps with the hurdle of restrictions related to the introduction of live organisms from one country to another”, added Castagnaro.
Besides, new soy-genes have been identified related to resistance to the most common diseases affecting soy bean plantations.
The automatic platform is located in Balcarce, Buenos Aires province and works together with the..Read full article
