This past October, all the institute's researchers attended a two-day seminar in Yeruham. Beyond deepening the bonds of friendship between the researchers, we discussed, at great length, the future of the institute and its vision. Indeed, we were able to distill our essence and uniqueness as a research group into a single statement: We are interested in promoting sustainable agricultural solutions. These solutions, adapted to desert conditions, will be suitable for other zones where the climate is changing and even warming. At the seminar, we talked a lot about the institute’s research outputs and the ways that they can be improved. We have agreed to establish five working teams that will continue to deal with the following issues: social connections, manuscripts and grants, public relations and student attraction, infrastructure, and donor relationships. All teams have already started work, and the next institute council will hear reports on the results of these discussions. I have no doubt that working together will highlight the strengths of the institute and serve as an amplifier for the institute’s knowledge centers. This photo captures an optimistic moment at the end of the seminar when we felt that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
Although the COVID-19 conditions are greatly improving in Israel, the pandemic continues in several places around the world, especially in Europe. This makes collaborations very difficult, as well as attendance at scientific conferences. Nonetheless, I ask everyone to do their best to attend scientific conferences online, in a hybrid format, and, if the situation allows, in person. Attending conferences is the best way to get feedback from other researchers in your community. Again, I ask every student to find a conference relevant to their field of study and try to present there in the near future. It is important to note that there is financial support for attending scientific conferences, which should be taken advantage of while studying at the Sede Boqer Campus.
BGU is currently implementing a Current Research Information System (CRIS) for managing, organizing, and publicizing the research outputs and academic activities of the academic staff. The system, PURE from ELSEVIER, was selected by the Israeli Council for Higher Education and will be used in all Israeli universities. This system operates in and serves hundreds of universities around the world. It will allow greater visibility of faculty members, where each researcher will have an individual page with personal details, a list of publications, grants, and scholarships, names of research students, and a "research fingerprint". In addition, in the near future, the budgeting for the universities will be based on the information from the system. I ask everyone to make the necessary adjustments so that all the information that appears in the system is up to date.
In the text below, you will find news about all that has happened at the institute in the last two months. We make great efforts to collect the information and bring it to you. I want to express a heartfelt thank you to Yammit Ittiel for collecting the material and editing the newsletters. This is already the eighth newsletter since we started. By the way, all the previous ones can be found on the institute's website.
Meet the Researcher
Max Kolton
Dr. Max Kolton is an environmental microbiologist. Max’s research projects are united by the common theme of understanding the ecology, physiology, and genetics of soil microbiomes and their response to environmental changes, with the overall goal
of ensuring food stability for future generations.
His primary research projects have involved the following: (i) increasing carbon dioxide sequestration by enhancing the photosynthetic efficiency of plants (MSc thesis), (ii) stimulating plant productivity and disease resistance through biochar soil
amendments (PhD thesis), and (iii) determining the fate of phenolic compounds in soils (BSc thesis). In addition, Max has been studying (iv) the role and response of plant-associated microbial communities to climate change perturbations in peatlands
and salt marshes (postdoctoral projects). Furthermore, as a visiting scientist at the Guangdong Academy of Sciences (Guangzhou, China), together with Drs. Xiaoxu Sun and Weimin Sun, Max discovered (v) the dominant role of chemolithoautotrophic
microorganisms in the nitrogen cycle of heavy-metal-contaminated soils. Finally, as a Research Bioengineer at the RUSH Medical Center (Chicago, IL, USA), (vi) Max took a leading role in establishing the genomic center for COVID-19 epidemiological
studies.
In his current position at the French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Max is (a) studying the role of microbial communities in greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural ecosystem of the
Negev and (b) developing new microbial-based products for reducing the environmental impact of the Israeli wine industry.
Agroinformatics: a New Specialization in the Desert Studies Master’s Degree Program
Agroinformatics, a new specialization in the Desert Studies master’s degree program, is the management and analysis of agricultural data with the help of computing and information technology.
The purpose of this specialization is to provide students with a broad scientific understanding and a set of practical tools for developing, managing, and analyzing the “Big Data” of agricultural systems in order to improve sustainable food production in arid environments.
We believe that this specialization offers a cutting-edge program that will attract many master’s degree students from Israel and worldwide.
A new publication in the journal Science of the Total Environment reports the results from a field experiment aimed at understanding the effect of the algal fertilization of wheat on soil biogeochemistry, microbial population composition,
and crop performance.
Fertilization using microalgal biomass has the potential to reduce mineral fertilizer use and to provide a pathway to a circular economy if the biomass is produced in secondary treated water.
To date, most research on the effects on microalgal biomass application to crops has been conducted in small-scale pots in a greenhouse, and while reported results are promising, there is still uncertainty regarding the field performance. We conducted
a field experiment where we compared the effects of algal biomass-based fertilizer to the urea currently used for wheat fertilization. We found that microalgal biomass reduced soil N oxide emissions by 2–5-fold, while the soil microbiome was not
influenced by the fertilization type but varied with soil type. Crop yield was unaffected by fertilization, but grain N content was higher in wheat fertilized with urea. N content reduction in the grain may indicate N deficiency in the crop.
Ministry of Science and Technology: Israeli-Taiwan Scientific and Technological Cooperation
Title:Understanding the role of the ascorbate-glutathione cycle in the oxidative stress resilience of the marine microalga Nannochloropsis oceanica and its application in biotechnology.
Principal Investigator:Inna Khozin-Goldberg
Abstract:The mass production of photosynthetic marine microalgae on non-arable land using alternative water resources is envisaged to provide alternative sustainable sources of food/feed ingredients, such as protein and essential omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. There is a need for productive and stress-resilient microalgae to reduce energy and resource inputs and decrease production costs. The main goal of the research is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of oxidative-stress resilience of the Rose-Bengal tolerant mutants of the marine microalga N. oceanica isolated and characterized by the group of Prof. A. Vonshak. This collaborative project will focus on the role played by the ascorbate-glutathione cycle (AGC), considering its key role in ROS homeostasis, and will benefit from the expertise of the colleagues from the Department of Marine Biotechnology and Resources at the National Sun Yat-sen University (Taiwan).
Budget: 252,000 NIS for two years.
ICA
Title:Rapid identification of pest management in tomato plants
Principal Investigators: Vered Tzin (FAAB) and Muhammad Bashouti
Abstract: The two-spotted spider-mite (TSSM) is an important pest worldwide. For three years, our groups, together with BioBee Sde Eliyahu (experts in biological controls), have been studying the odors emitted by tomatoes in response to mites for rapid identification. With ICA support, we will build a portable Raman instrument that will allow us to rapidly sense tomato odors released upon TSSM attack, directly in the greenhouse.
Title: Selection and development of improved self-compatible pitaya cultivars
Principal Investigators: Noemi Tel-Zur (FAAB), Irit Dory, and Yosef Mizrahi
Abstract:Israeli pitaya farmers are already enjoying excellent profitability from this crop, due to its high water use efficiency, the high value of the fresh fruits, and the excellent yields. However, there is a need to improve the characteristics of the existing cultivars and extend the marketing period. To support this need, a new experimental plot was established in the Besor area with the aim of monitoring 18 promising pitaya hybrids and three control cultivars for yield and fruit quality parameters, including shelf-life, harvesting date, and taste. In parallel, to overcome the self-incompatibility system, which means, in practice, that farmers have to cultivate two cultivars that bloom simultaneously and perform cross-pollination, we have developed a protocol to double the set of chromosomes and produce self-compatible cultivars that we would like to test in the proposed project. The success of this project will lead to the identification of improved self-compatible hybrids that can be grown in addition to the existing commercial cultivars. This will enable cultivated areas to be extended and will lead to increased pitaya profitability.
Title:Setting-up a platform for the use of prickly pear seed oil for wound therapy
Principal Investigators:Yaron Sitrit and Noemi Tel-Zur (FAAB), Efraim Lewinsohn (ARO), Eli C. Lewis (FOHS), and Orli Grinstein-Cohen (FOHS)
Abstract:The project aims to contribute to sustainable agriculture in the Negev through the development of a new product, the oil of prickly pear seeds (sabras). We propose to develop a new prickly pear oil product based on its wound-repair properties. Prickly pear oil contains high concentrations of vital components for wound repair, including vitamins and antioxidants, in addition to arachidic acid, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory component. The advantage of the oil lies in its potential suitability for use in patients treated with therapeutics that interfere with wound repair, such as diabetics with open wounds, cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, patients treated chronically with steroids, and those with skin diseases such as Leishmaniasis.This is an ongoing collaboration between several research groups including Profs. Yaron Sitrit and Noemi Tel-Zur from the J. Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR); French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands (FAAB), Sede Boqer, Prof Efraim Lewinsohn of Newe Yaar ARO, Prof. Eli C. Lewis Departments of Clinical Biochemistry & Pharmacology, Faculty of Health Sciences (FOHS), and Dr. Orli Grinstein-Cohen, Head, Nursing Department, FOHS, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva.
Title:A novel device for detecting plant stress using belowground observations
Principal Investigators:Jhonathan E. Ephrath and Naftali Lazarovitch (FAAB)
Abstract:A barrier to breeding and monitoring root system architecture has been the lack of high-throughput phenotyping tools, particularly in the field, where this is most relevant. In this study, we will improve and upgrade the minirhizotron (MR) system for studying root function, particularly under stress conditions.
In this proposal,we aim to (1) study plant behavior by following stress expression using the fluorescence of shock proteins (SP) and (2) develop a new MR system that will further promote research on roots under field and controlled conditions, by automatically capturing high quality images of roots using regular (RGB) and UV lighting systems. We will demonstrate that fluorescent roots are a powerful tool for investigating the relative distribution of roots, especially fine roots. Furthermore, we show that minirhizotrons enable continuous and non-destructive observation of the fluorescence expression of florescence proteins (FP) to detect stress.
Sol Leshin Program (UCLA/BGU)
Team: Merav Seifan and Vered Tzin (BGU) and Lachezar Nikolov (UCLA)
Title:Determining the genetic and environmental factors that underlie plant-pollinator interactions
Project description:Plants secure pollination services through the association of floral signals (e.g., flower color, shape, and scent) and reward (e.g., nectar). Plant signals and rewards may change in relation to abiotic and biotic factors, including aridity and pollinator community and abundance. In particular, the harsher the habitat conditions, the scarcer the resources available to produce secondary compounds related to scent, color, and nectar. At the same time, these cues ensure successful pollination. These tradeoffs are particularly pronounced in arid regions, where harsh abiotic conditions correlate with reduced pollinator services. Thus, it is predicted that investment in signaling and reward becomes more critical in arid habitats. The main goal of this project is to characterize the main factors that underlie plant-pollinator interactions. We will focus on white mustard (Sinapis alba), which grows along a large aridity gradient in Israel.
Team: Lawren Sack (UCLA) and Shimon Rachmilevitch (FAAB)
Title:What determines drought tolerance and species distributions in aridregions?
Project description:The anticipation of which species might be especially endangered and require special conservation attention has been limited by the lack of ability to estimate species’ tolerances using their phenotypic traits. Our main goal is to improve our understanding of the link between functional traits and species distributions in arid regions.
New Experiment with the ICLGroup in the Environmental Biogeochemistry Lab
The Environmental Biogeochemistry Lab, led by Dr. Ilya Gelfand, is helping the ICL to determine whether a new formulation of nitrogen (N) fertilizer can help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. The experiment, in large replicated mesocosms,
will take place in one of the FAAB’s mesh houses. We will grow a wheat crop fertilized with the new formulation of N fertilizer and compare soil GHG emissions to those from wheat grown with urea, which is currently used for wheat fertilization in
Israel and around the world. The ICL group reached out to work with the Environmental Biogeochemistry Lab since we have the capacity to setup experiments aimed at understanding the environmental sustainability of agricultural crops. Moreover, our
lab uses newly developed laser-based spectroscopy instrumentation, which is able to measure soil GHG emissions with a precision of 0.2 ppb, 20–40 times better than currently used gas chromatography-based approaches.
High-Value Products from Microalgae: Best Presentation
The European Algal Biomass Association and Sammy Boussiba organized a technical webinar.
Prof. Boussiba’s presentation received the most votes for best presentation, followed by Soshanna Arad, Michael Borowitzka, and Inna Khozin-Goldberg.
School of Sustainability and Climate Change (SSCC) Excellence Scholarships
The following students received Excellence Scholarships from the SSCC:
Godwin Abakarim, PhD Student
Supervisor: Prof. Dina Zilberg
Research title: Integrating water treatment with nutrient utilization in intensive aquaculture by a new microaerophilic membrane assimilation reactor system
Taye Molla Gereme, PhD Student
Supervisor: Dr. Vered Tzin
Research title: Improving wheat resistance mechanisms against pests for sustainable crop protection
Asaf Yupiter Vanunu, MSc Student
Supervisor: Prof. Arnon Karnieli
Research title: Spatiotemporal modeling of ecosystem phenological disturbances using remote sensing and geoinformatics methods
Molcho Center Scholarships
The Molcho Center in the Negev has awarded its annual scholarships for student work done in the field of developing and promoting agricultural research in the Negev, in memory of the late Haim Molcho.
Petar Jovanovic, a PhD student supervised by Prof. Shimon Rachmilevitch, and Ashageru Tsaga, an MSc student supervised by Dr. Vered Tzin, have been awarded the scholarship.
2021 ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Meeting: A Firsthand Report from Dr. Ilya Gelfand
For the first time since the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, more than 3000 participants, mostly from the USA, gathered to exchange new ideas, results, and concepts at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City, UT. The meeting
was called "A creative economy for sustainable development." Meeting attendees and presenters shared their ideas about how to solve global issues related to the environmental sustainability of agriculture. Finding ways to develop sustainable agriculture
and to construct management practices that are aimed at reducing the environmental impact of agriculture is becoming a very important issue in USA and around the world. Unfortunately, here, in Israel, sustainability is not yet a focus. While Israeli
agriculture is prized around the world for its innovation and technological advances, the environmental impact of agriculture is not studied enough.
The Negev Highlands LTSER (long-term socioecosystem research)
The Negev Highlands LTSER (long-term socio-ecological research) platform, a member of the integrated pan-European LTER community, strives to facilitate interactions between researchers and members of the local society, to promote a collaborative working culture and transdisciplinary expertise. Dr. N. Kamennaya from the FAAB is one of the platform’s scientific experts.
The first public meeting of the platform was held in Mitzpe Ramon on October 28–29. It focused on the growing population of wild asses, on the dependence of local agriculture on tourism, and on the potential establishment of a geopark in the Negev Highlands.
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