Published on: 2026-08-05
Source: Novosibirsk State University –
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The project “Creation of a pesticide-resistant bacterial preparation to stimulate the growth and development of cultivated plants” is being carried out by a second-year master’s student specializing in “Advanced Engineering Solutions for Biotechnology and Medicine” Faculty of Natural Sciences of Novosibirsk State University Maria Yakovleva. With the support of the Startup Studio, she participated in the Innovation Assistance Fund competition ‘Student Startup’ of the University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform for the year 2026 and became one of the winners.
The first results of the project are expected by September next year. It is planned that by this time field trials of the drug will take place outside the laboratory, during which targeted agricultural crops will be treated with it under controlled conditions.
— Agricultural fields are actively treated with pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, as a result of which these xenobiotics accumulate in the soils. This leads to soil degradation, as well as suppression of plant growth and development. This reduces the yield of agricultural crops, including significant ones for the economy, such as wheat, oats, soybeans, peas, and others. We made the decision to search for bacteria that would become the basis of a new biopreparation. These bacteria should be able to utilize the pesticides accumulated in the soil and restore the soils, which will positively affect the growth and development of plants. At present, the market offers many different biopreparations, but unfortunately, many of them lose their effectiveness when introduced into contaminated soils. Our goal was to find bacteria or their consortia resistant to such impact, capable not only of surviving in adverse conditions but also effectively coping with both soil restoration and stimulation of plant growth and development., — Maria Yakovleva said.
A project implemented by a young researcher under the scientific supervision of the head of the master’s program Advanced Engineering Solutions for Biotechnology and Medicine of the Advanced Engineering School of NSU, Candidate of Biological Sciences Sergey Sedykh, aimed at creating domestic technologies for the agro-industrial complex, reducing dependence on imported biopreparations and chemical plant protection products, as well as developing microbiological products adapted to intensive agricultural crop cultivation technologies. The search for bacterial strains resistant to pesticides and the development of a technology for cultivating bacteria on inexpensive nutrient media used in industrial microbiology, containing low-cost nutrient components, allow for the integration of biological products into existing plant protection systems and the creation of new import-substituting compositions for the production of microbial products. Overall, this project aligns with the priority direction “Highly productive and resilient to environmental changes agriculture” and the technology “Technologies for creating biological and chemical means to increase crop yields and protect them from diseases and harmful organisms.”It will be implemented based on the laboratory of the Advanced Engineering School of NSU, whose team has the equipment, facilities, and modern material and technical base necessary for conducting the research.
— Another important task within our startup is selecting optimal nutrient media for bacteria, because unfortunately, growing bacteria on nutrient media in the laboratory is quite expensive due to the use of costly components, such as glucose. To reduce the cost of producing media for bacterial cultivation, we are looking for substitutes — using molasses, corn extract, soybean, fish, or meat and bone meal. It is important for us to selectively choose nutrient media for each specific bacterium. So, our startup can be useful both for biotech companies that need to grow bacteria — it will allow cheaper bacterial cultivation and production of preparations — and for agricultural enterprises, including agro-industrial complexes or seed companies, because our biopreparation can be not only applied to the soil but also used for seed treatment. — explained Maria Yakovleva.
This will reduce production costs and achieve independence from imported counterparts, which will help address the challenges of sustainable agriculture and the national project “Bioeconomy.”
At this stage of the project implementation, optimal nutrient media for cultivating bacteria have already been selected. They were provided to the researchers by potential industrial partners, as well as taken from literary sources. Additionally, 15 bacterial strains with proven properties affecting plant growth and development have already been tested. During the experiments, 5 strains showed the best results. Nutrient media that are optimally suited for growing these particular bacterial strains have been established. Next, Maria Yakovleva plans to select bacterial consortia and further reduce the cost of nutrient media production — specifically, to select their components in more optimal ratios.
— We cultivated all 15 bacterial strains in 10 liquid nutrient media under various conditions. Initially, experiments were conducted in 250 ml flasks, measuring bacterial concentration and assessing their growth quality—in each of the 10 nutrient media, as well as in the control LB medium. After that, we transferred the experiment to test tubes to see if the bacteria would grow in smaller volumes, since smaller volume imposes more limitations, such as aeration, and bacteria grow worse in it. Based on these experiments, we selected bacterial strains that showed the highest growth and determined in which specific nutrient media and under which conditions they grow better and more stably. Most soil bacteria are cultivated at 28 degrees Celsius for 72 hours. This seemed too long for us, and to accelerate the production process, we decided to cultivate them at the optimal temperature for microorganism growth, 37 degrees Celsius, for one day. We also attempted to grow bacteria at 30 degrees and found 3 strains that show low growth at 37 degrees but exhibit higher growth at 30 degrees than some other bacteria. — Maria Yakovleva said.
In the near future, a selection will be made of bacterial strains, nutrient media, and cultivation methods for a new series of experiments aimed at identifying the ability of these soil microorganisms to survive in the presence of pesticides – in degraded soils, as well as their ability to degrade pesticides and stimulate plant growth. After this, the researchers will begin field trials and the search for a suitable form of biofertilizers: either liquid or lyophilized, with a longer shelf life. In the long term, despite the fact that the safety of the studied bacteria for humans and animals has already been proven, toxicity tests are planned.
— We expect our bacterial preparation to also have an advantage over existing analogues in that it is selective. The biopreparations currently available on the market have one drawback — they are positioned as universal. And, accordingly, non-specific. The effect of the biopreparation will be averaged out, meaning lower. We will select a specific bacterial strain for each particular agricultural crop: one for wheat, another for sunflower, a third for peas, etc., which will increase the selectivity of the biopreparation and enhance the effectiveness when applied to soil or used for seed treatment., — clarified Maria Yakovleva.
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