Tim Sawbridge 1,2, Holly Hone1, Rens Van Essen1, Tongda Li1, Jatinder Kaur1, Ross Mann1,2, and Tony Arioli 3
1Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, 5 Ring Road, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
2School of Applied Systems Biology, AgriBio, 5 Ring Road, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
3Seasol International, PO Box 160, Bayswater, Victoria, Australia
Seasol is a liquid plant supplement made from Bull Kelp (Durvillaea spp) and Knotted Kelp (Ascophyllum nodosum). A standard dilution of the commercial product was used to treat a commercially available seedling raising mix prior to sowing of lettuce seed. Compared to the water treated seed raising mix, an increase in seedling emergence was observed for plants sown in the Seasol treated growth media at 4 and 5 days after sowing. Leaf lengths were measured weekly for 3 weeks post planting, with these being statistically longer (p value of t-test <0.05) for all three weeks in the treated plants. To gain a molecular understanding of possible reasons for the enhanced emergence and shoot growth, root samples were used for RNA sequencing at the 21day timepoint. Comparisons between the transcriptomes of Seasol treated lettuce plants and the controls revealed that genes involved in the lettuce plant’s nitrogen metabolism were up-regulated in the Seasol treated plants. The results from a more detailed time-series RNAseq experiment will be presented, including an analysis of the microbiome differences between the Seasol treated and un-treated lettuce roots.