Wheat Microbiota’s Response to Fungicide Exposure and its Effect on the Resilience of the Holobiont against Abiotic Stressors (MicroResponS)

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Steffen Kolb; Professor Dr. Matthias Noll; Professor Dr. Stefan Simm
• Subject Area: Soil Sciences ; Organismic Interactions, Chemical Ecology and Microbiomes of Plant Systems
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 572824293

Wheat (Triticum species) is one of the top three global crops and a top European crop. It is vital for global food security. Modern wheat cropping systems are facing increasing challenges due to intensifying and more frequent weather extremes, such as drought, heat, and flooding. The wheat plant colonizing microbiota provides crucial traits that make wheat more resilient to stress. The joint systemic response and complex interdependencies of the crop host and its microbiota are the definition of a holobiont. The Triticum aestivum holobiont is the object of research in the project MicroResponS. Fungal diseases of cereals are increasing in frequency and northwards distribution, triggered by global warming. These diseases are conventionally controlled by fungicides. It is clear that fungicides also harm non-target fungi in the plant microbiota and that the application of fungicides will reduce the ability of the holobiont to recover itself once an abiotic stressor has been alleviated. The applicants from the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) and the University of Applied Sciences Coburg (HS Coburg) will conduct a series of plant pot experiments. The MicroResponse project will be further supported through collaborations with a partner from IPK Gatersleben. The pot experiments will simulate two abiotic stressors (drought, flooding). The breeding history of wheat cultivars will be a key focus, as we will explore its crucial role in the resilience of wheat holobionts against the selected abiotic stressors. We will investigate two old landraces and a commercial high-yield cultivar of Triticum aestivum L and will compare them to the resilience behaviour of an ancient sister species, T. uratu (red wild einkorn). The modulating effect of two fungicide compounds commonly used in agriculture (azoxystrobin, prothioconazole) on the resilience will also be investigated. MicroResponS will develop a novel and quantitative approach to measure the resilience of the wheat holobiont. This approach will be based on data from metabarcoding of proliferating bacteria and fungi, their genetically encoded plant growth promoting trait abundances, plant biomass parameters and phenological plant growth. We will collect data from several time points after stressor relief and will refer them to an untreated control using co-occurrence networks, multi-variate statistics and biomarker analysis. We will also use explainable AI approaches to model the resilience period required by a holobiont after the relief of stressors.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Andreas Börner