The aim of MICROP is to tackle these challenges with a global vision. To achieve this goal, we have developed an ambitious multi-disciplinary research programme with the following approach:
Work package 1: We will study the evolution of plant-recruited root microbiomes across the plant kingdom. With precision-based methods, we will analyse the root microbiome dynamics and plant response and performance of 100 wild and cultivated plant species - related to the five most important food crop families – grown under four major types of stress: nutrient deficiency, drought, pathogen infection and herbivory.
Work package 2: In collaboration with our international partners, we will investigate how microbiome recruitment and functionality change when plants are grown in soils at their centres of origin. Here, we take a selection of wild and domesticated plant species back to their origin, and determine how the taxonomy and functionality of the root microbiome changes under conditions where plants are exposed to different stresses.
WP3 Digging deep: Mechanisms and plasticity of stress-induced microbiome recruitment
Digging deeper: Microbiome functions facilitating plant stress resilience
Simone Borgoni, Identifying personalized epigenetic endocrine resistance based on pathway screening
To study evolution of root-associated microbe recruitment by analysing plant response and microbiome composition in 100 wild and cultivated plant species under biotic and abiotic stresses. To investigate the mechanisms underlying microbiome recruitment specific to the Cucurbitaceae family in domesticated species and their wild relatives.
The overall aim of this project is to elucidate mechanism underlying biotic-stress induced plant-microbe communication belowground via root-emitted VOCs (volatile organic compounds).
