Project Details
Projekt
The functional relevance of plant-microbe-insect interactions in a cereal crop system
Subject Area
Ecology of Land Use
Term
from 2018 to 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 397565003
Plants do not operate as independent units but are subject to, and dependent on, interactions with their associated microbiota. The interactions between plants and their microbiome affect plant fitness both directly and indirectly, by modifying interactions with third partners, such as insect pests. The microbiome itself is not static, but responds to interactions with the plant and the environment. Recent methodological advances have allowed the characterisation of the plant microbiome to previously unknown detail, but the importance of plant and microbe interactions for plant performance within agro-ecological systems are only beginning to be explored. In this proposal, we build on recent efforts cataloguing the composition of the root and rhizosphere microbiome of barley, Hordeum vulgare, to understand the structure, composition and function of plant-microbe interactions when barley is subjected to abiotic and biotic stress. We aim to understand the tritrophic interactions between barley plants, their root microbiome and aphid herbivores. On the one hand, we will study how aphid infestation and nitrogen-limitation, as biotic and abiotic plant stressors, affect the root microbiome and its signalling. On the other hand, we will examine the impact of manipulating the rhizobacterial community on reducing aphid pest populations and enhancing biological control success by natural enemies.By using not only descriptive analysis (community change over time), but also plant-microbe and microbe-microbe communication analyses (root exudates, quorum sensing) including inoculation experiments with defined PGPRs and QS mutants, this enables us to fully explore mechanisms and impacts of the underlying variation in community composition across different environments. Our study will bring together expertise from microbiology, plant physiology, community genetics and insect ecology to further the understanding of the role of the microbiome for plant performance in an agro-ecological system.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
Co-Investigators
Professor Dr. Peter Schröder; Sharon Zytynska, Ph.D.
