Phyla co-Founders visit University of Reading

 

August 2022

 

Professor Mark Tibbett, Professor of Soil Ecology at the University of Reading along with his team of research scientists showed Phyla CEO Rabih El Fadel and COO Harry Vernon the growing rooms where they have been conducting a segment of their research into pongamia’s unique properties, including the plant species’ potential to be an effective phytoremediating tool in the Copperbelt of Zambia.

 

The team of scientists have spent the last two years studying the molecular biology of copper uptake and translocation of copper by pongamia and associated mycorrhizal networks.

 

As part of their research, pongamia, seeds were taken from Phyla’s Elite Pongamia orchard at Konkola Copper Mines plc in Zambia and grown under strict laboratory conditions to investigate the effect of different levels of copper on pongamia. They applied differing amounts of copper to the pots together with two different mycorrhizae species (Rhizophagus irregularis and Paraglomus laccatum) to see the effect of mycorrhizas on copper uptake and distribution in pongamia. The substrate in the pots is a mixture of sand and TerraGreen and they applied Long Ashton’s nutrient solution every week to be certain that plants do not suffer from nutrient deficiency.

 

The results of their research will be published in full during the International Conferences on Mine Closure 2022 which is being held in Brisbane, Australia in October.