Metabolite Technology

Metabolite Technology is the new tool from ICL for improving crops’ tolerance to stress and increasing crop yield. Metabolite Technology is found in our unique, high-performance biostimulants that can improve crop resistance to stresses, and enhance nutrient utilization and increase crop yields.

Metabolite Technology describes the unique combinations of microbial metabolites that our R&D teams and agronomists have specifically identified to deliver the best results for growers. But what are microbial metabolites, and how do they improve crop yield?

What are Metabolites?

Microbial metabolites are, simply put, the result of metabolism in microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, or algae. These microorganisms produce metabolites as they break down food, drugs, chemicals, or their own tissues. The metabolites can be substances the organism uses, or they can be waste products the organism wants to get rid of.

Metabolites include organic acids, amino acids, and polysaccharides, amongst other substances, some of which have been found to modulate plant physiological responses, promote nutrient uptake, and enhance root growth. Additionally, some metabolites influence soil chemical and physical properties, such as soil pH and structure, making the soil environment more conducive to plant health and productivity.

How can Metabolites Improve Crop Production?

Of the vast number of different metabolites available, some of them are of particular interest to agriculture. Some of the metabolites possess unique physiological properties, such as enhancing a plant’s tolerance to salinity, heat, or drought or helping crops to recover from periods of stress.

The molecular distillation technique utilizes sophisticated physicochemical processes meticulously separating the microbial metabolites into distinct fractions. By analyzing the specific activities of these metabolite fractions, we carefully formulate them in conjunction with other well-established biostimulant substances.

Each special metabolite fraction can function as a powerful biostimulant enhancer, acting directly or indirectly to activate plant responses and prompting the crop’s internal metabolic processes. This activation stimulates the plants’ production of enzymes and proteins to modulate their metabolic activity, allowing them to adapt to environmental factors and increase stress tolerance.

Testing the power of Metabolite Technology

During our development of Metabolite Technology, we leveraged cutting-edge scientific advancements to explore and understand the biostimulant effects at a molecular level. Our rigorous experiments evaluated transcriptomics in raspberries and demonstrated how Metabolite Technology effectively triggers plant responses.

We tracked how intensively plants produced proteins associated with abiotic tolerance. Under control conditions, the plants activated 173 genes to adapt to suboptimal conditions. When treated with ICL Metabolite Technology, the plants activated a total of 367 genes, resulting in the production of an additional 203 proteins, including stress-responsive enzymes like catalases and peroxidases. This demonstrates how the Metabolite Technology enhanced the plants’ tolerance to abiotic stress, equipping them with a wider arsenal of tools to fight against adverse conditions.

Using Metabolite Technology to Enhance Crop Production

ICL’s careful identification of beneficial metabolites, combined with our sophisticated molecular distillation approach, allows us to select the ideal Metabolite Technology to create 3^rd Generation Biostimulant products with unmatched performance, tailored to meet the diverse needs of crops under varying field conditions. These Metabolite Technology enhanced biostimulants ensure superior plant growth, resilience, and overall agricultural success.