Project Details
Projekt
Characterization of the molecular mechanism underpinning local and systemic responses in root-microbe multispecies interactions
Subject Area
Organismic Interactions, Chemical Ecology and Microbiomes of Plant Systems
Term
since 2018
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 401865180
This project aims to understand how host-microbiota interactions in natural soil shape and are shaped by local and systemic responses to beneficial and pathogenic root associated fungi. In order to address this, we have recently established a reductionist approach which takes advantage of a gnotobiotic natural soil-based split root system to identify plant and microbe-derived transcripts, proteins and metabolites that locally and systemically affect these interactions. The proposed work will focus on the role of local and root to root systemic signalling events on barley roots associated fungal and bacterial microbes. We will study single and joint root infection of barley and Arabidopsis wild type and mutants with the root rot fungal pathogen Bipolaris sorokiniana, with the beneficial root endophyte Serendipita vermifera and selected barley and Arabidopsis associated bacteria (Synthethic Communities, SynComs). The consequences for local and systemic plant immunity will be studied by proteomics, metabolomics and reciprocal transcriptional responses to fungal colonization and bacterial accommodation by combining the expert knowledge on molecular plant - fungal endosymbioses and root accommodation programs in barley in the group of Zuccaro (Uni Cologne) with expertise in cell and metabolic biology in the group of Tissier (IPB Halle). Specifically, we will study root niche specialization with cytological and phenotyping approaches, identify fungal and plant derived apoplastic compatibility factors / effector proteins and novel diterpene phytoalexins from barley, whose local and systemic microbe-induced biosynthesis can be inferred from our preliminary split root transcriptome data. Ultimately, their role in multispecies root interactions will be evaluated.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
