Text Transcript

Energy-Based Technology Shows Plant Growth, Stress Tolerance Performance
 

By Lynn Grooms
   Molecular Impulse Response (MIR) seed technology could soon attract more attention from both agronomic and horticultural seed companies. In six years of testing (six in the lab and four in the field), seed treated with this energy-based technology is showing tolerance to various environ-mental stresses, such as drought and temperature extremes. It also is demonstrating some increases in growth rate, uni-formity and yield in a variety of crops, including corn, sweet corn, soybeans, carrots and tomatoes.
   Encouraged by lab and field test results, Pro Seed Technologies, Inc. (PST), Blissfield, Mich., the owner and patent holder of the technology, is discussing MIR’s poten-tial commercial benefits with various seed companies. Direct Enterprises, Inc. (DEl), McCordsville, Ind., a foun-dation company that also offers its seed company cus-tomers new technologies to enhance seed performance, will assist in the marketing and testing of the technology in the corn and soybean seed business.
   PST plans to license the MIR process on a royalty arrangement. It would help licensees in setting up the equipment used to treat seed and in training operators on the treating process. Licensees would treat the seed them-selves and pay royalties based on dollar volume of sales of MIR-treated seed.
   MIR is an energy-based process that was discovered by W.C. Levengood, a biophysicist who was on the faculty of the University of Michigan’s Institute of Science and Technology. It involves treating dried seed at normal stor-age moisture with an electrical impulse. Large amounts of seed are essentially given a low energy electron shower as seed passes through two electrodes. The process does not involve applying chemicals or water to seed.
   According to John Burke, PST president, MR technology is inexpensive to operate. “It is safe and operator friendly. It can be integrated into the normal processing of seed:’ he adds.
   Burke says the technology’s electronic impulse triggers a cellular response in seed that improves it’s ability to tol-erate environmental stresses. The technology enhances growth rate and uniformity, but does not alter the seed’s genetic makeup, he adds.
   Burke says normal plant cells produce respiration bursts which include free radicals. In high concentrations, these radicals are harmful. These bursts also can be brought on by environmental stresses. In response to the bursts of free radicals, however, seeds also produce anti-oxidants to help them tolerate stress. Burke says there is a similar response in humans. As humans do aerobic exercise, their cells pro-duce more free radicals, but they also produce beneficial anti-oxidants to help restore cell balance.
   “To simplify a complex explanation, the MIR process increases free radical content for a short time, stimulating cells to produce beneficial anti-oxidants. As the anti-oxi-dants perform their role, eventually the cell winds up with a
lower free radical level than at the beginning. This lessens the impact of stress-induced free radical bursts, and it brings the redox ratio (again in simplified terms, the level of free radicals divided by the level of anti-oxidants) down to the low levels that organisms try to achieve before begin-ning reproductive growth,” explains Burke. He says this is likely why MIR-treated seed put a disproportionate amount of energy into growth of seeds rather than simple biomass.

Ongoing Testing
   PST has worked with both public and private sectors in testing the seed, and is continuing to expand its trials. It encourages seed companies to conduct their own test plots. “We want to look at the differences between hybrids and varieties in different maturity zones,” says Burke. Thirty days are required between treatment and planting.
   A university field trial of soybeans (which included sev-eral replications) treated with the MJR process also showed increased germination and a substantial yield increase without adversely affecting oil and protein content.
Tests of carrots showed increased yields and stress toler-ance, according to the company. On MIR-treated seed, the carrots had fewer instances of multiple root branching. Similar response was observed in sweet corn, with reduced number of tillers.