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Pflanzen beherbergen eine artenreiche Mikrobiota mit einer Vielzahl von Bakterien, Pilzen oder Oomyzeten und stehen in ständiger Interaktion mit diesen. Diese Mikroorganismen fungieren kollektiv als Mikrobiom und beeinflussen, ähnlich wie die mikrobiellen Gemeinschaften im menschlichen oder tierischen Darm, die Ernährung und Gesundheit ihres Wirtes. So können beispielsweise Mitglieder der Pflanzenmikrobiota die Nährstoffaufnahme verbessern oder den Schutz vor Krankheitserregern gewährleisten. In unserer Forschung befassen wir uns mit den folgenden grundlegenden Fragen der Biologie von Pflanzenmikrobiomen:

- Wie kommunizieren Pflanzen mit der Wurzelmikrobiota und nehmen Einfluss auf deren Aktivitäten?

- Was ist der funktionelle Beitrag der Wurzelmikrobiota zum Pflanzenwachstum und zum Krankheitsschutz?

Ziel unserer Forschung ist letztlich, dass nützliche Interaktionen zwischen Pflanzen und Mikroorganismen in einer intelligenten und nachhaltigen Landwirtschaft eingesetzt werden können. Wir arbeiten hauptsächlich mit Arabidopsis thaliana und Zea mays als Modellpflanzen und kombinieren Feld- und Laborexperimente mit Methoden der Mikrobiomik, Molekularbiologie, Mikrobiologie, Pflanzengenetik und Bioinformatik.

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Adresse

Universität Basel
Departement Umweltwissenschaften
Pflanzen Mikroben Interaktionen
Bernoullistrasse 32
CH-4056 Basel

News

Group outing at FIBL

On August 29th, we had a fantastic group outing to the FIBL in Frick. After an inspiring scientific exchange, we were given a very interesting tour of the institute. FIBL's hospitality was much appreciated and we enjoyed some amazing organic food. Later in the afternoon, we braved the rain with our colorful umbrellas and went for a hike on the famous "Chriesiwäg" and rounded off the day with a delicious ice cream. Thanks again to FIBL for hosting us! mehr

Study: Soil chemical and microbial gradients determine accumulation of root‐exuded secondary metabolites and plant–soil feedbacks in the field

4 August 2023
Valentin Gfeller and Selma Cadot performed a maize-wheat rotation experiment in a field with a strong soil gradient to study the context dependency of plant soil feedbacks. These feedbacks occur in response to plant release of exudates, which cause abiotic and biotic changes in the surrounding soil that then ‘feedback’ on the performance of the next generation of plants. Maize root exudates contain bioactive benzoxazinoids that can cause positive feedbacks on wheat yield. To test the effect of benzoxazinoids along the soil gradient, we grew wild-type and benzoxazinoid-deficient maize plants in the first year and then wheat in the second year. First, we confirmed the strong field gradient in soil chemistry and microbiomes. Because of the gradient, no feedback effects would be seen when simply averaging the data across the field. Instead we included the gradient into the calculations and detected pronounced feedbacks that gradually changed from negative to positive across the field. Yield was enhanced in one field corner, while being decreased in the other and this change of feedback can be explained by the standing chemical and microbial gradients. With this study we highlight that understanding within‐field soil heterogeneity is crucial for future exploitation of plant–soil feedbacks in sustainable precision agriculture. mehr

Study: Plant secondary metabolite-dependent plant-soil feedbacks can improve crop yield in the field

1 August 2023
In this work led by Valentin Gfeller, we studied the agronomic relevance of secondary metabolite mediated plant soil feedbacks. Plants secrete secondary metabolites from their roots to soil to alter the biotic and abiotic properties and this affects the performance of the next generation of plants. From greenhouse experiments we knew that maize-exuded benzoxazinoids impact the performance of wheat and here, we tested if these feedbacks occur in ‘real life’, i.e. in crop rotation in the field. We assessed three winter wheat varieties growing in field plots whose soils had been conditioned by either wild-type or benzoxazinoid-deficient maize plants. Following maize cultivation, we detected benzoxazinoid-dependent chemical and microbial changes in the soil, increase wheat biomass and also decreased insect herbivore abundance in benzoxazinoid-conditioned soils. Importantly, yield was increased by over 4% without a reduction in grain quality in benzoxazinoid-conditioned soils. Taken together, here we show that soil conditioning with plant secondary metabolites can increase yield via plant-soil feedbacks under agronomically realistic conditions. Hence, if these feedbacks function across different soils and environments, optimizing root exudation chemistry could be a powerful strategy to enhance crop yields without additional inputs. mehr

Study: A symbiotic footprint in the plant root microbiome

31 July 2023
In this study, conducted by Natacha Bodenhausen, Kyle Hartman and Marc Schmid, we explored how arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and rhizobium symbionts contribute plant root microbiome structure. We grew 17 plant species from five families differing in their symbiotic associations (no symbioses, AMF only, rhizobia only, or AMF and rhizobia) in natural soil and we characterized their root microbiomes. Besides plant phylogeny and species identity, we find that the type of symbioses also presented a significant driver of community composition. We find groups of microbes that were specific for the different symbioses and importantly, these ‘symbiosis footprints’ were also apparent removing the primary symbionts mycorrhiza and rhizobia from the dataset. Overall, we find evidence for microbiome imprints – which we term the symbiotypes – that reflect the symbiotic associations of the host plant. mehr

Study: Glyphosate and terbuthylazine effects on soil functions, microbiome composition and crop performance

13 July 2023
Veronica Caggìa led a study where we tested the hypothesis that herbicide application changes the soil microbiome that then negatively feeds back on plant growth. We found that bacteria were more sensitive to glyphosate and terbuthylazine application than fungi, but that herbicide application did not affect subsequent maize performance. We found that herbicide levels in soil varied a lot with time and soil moisture. This points to the importance of understanding the context-dependency of rapid herbicide degradation in order to avoid negative repercussions on non-target organisms and soil functions. mehr

Predicting soil fungal communities from chemical and physical properties

21.06.2023
In this work led by Natacha Bodenhausen we developed code that allows to predict the composition of soil fungal communities based on physicochemical soil data using multivariate ordination. The idea behind is that reliable prediction of microbial communities from chemical soil properties, which farmers often have, could bypass the sequencing‐based generation of microbiota data, thereby making soil microbiome information available for agricultural purposes such as pathogen monitoring, field inoculation or yield projections. mehr

Congratulations Claudia for your MSc degree!

16.05.2023
In her MSc thesis ‘Microbial community dynamics and their impact on plant performance under phosphorous limiting conditions’, Claudia studied the microbe-induced growth promotion of A. thaliana under P-limiting conditions. Examination of bacterial communities did revealed no major alteration of community composition in response to varying levels of P. However, she identified efficient phosphate solubilizing strains among the abundant root bacteria, which probably help the plants to mitigate stress by P-limitation. This work was motivated by the vision that phosphate solubilizing root bacteria can be used to enhance crop productivity in a sustainable way.

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