Use of Prolines for Improving Crop Growth and Yield.

Rapid plant growth is an economically important goal for agricultural producers managing time sensitive costs and returns dependent upon a rapid turnover of crops or upon being first to market. A complete understanding of the plant regulatory mechanisms responsible for such rapid growth remain incompletely understood. In particular, a complete understanding has not been attained for the plant regulatory mechanisms that coordinate carbon and nitrogen metabolism which must have a major impact on plant growth and development. The enzyme glutamine synthetase catalyzes the assimilation of ammonia to form glutamine which is the precursor of the metabolite 2-oxoglutaramate. Our objective was to evaluate the exogenous on-seed and foliar application(s) of 2-oxoglutaramate on improved crop performance and growth. Numerous replicated laboratory, greenhouse, and field evaluations were made on various monocot and dicot crops to determine the effects of increased concentrations of 2-oxoglutaramate on a range of metrics including seed germination and uniformity of emergence, plant growth rate, fresh and dry weight, nutritional value (amino acids), carbon dioxide and nitrogen fixation, and yield. Results indicate maintaining an effective concentration of the 2-oxoglutaramate in the plant is highly desirable and that treating plants with regular, frequent treatments as a biostimulant can elevate the concentration of 2-oxoglutaramate and provide significant benefits to producers. This technology was first discovered by Los Alamos National Laboratory and is now commercialized by Verdesian Life Sciences (a plant health nutritional and biological company) and marketed under the trade name Take Off^®.