While growing in the soil, via the release of chemicals, such as sugars and allelochemicals, plants influence the microbial community in the soil, and this is particularly so for the microbes that live in the vicinity of the roots and directly interact with the plant. Such plant-mediated changes in the soil microbiome, in turn, can influence the plant that grows in the soil, and even other plants that are exposed later to these microbial communities. In both natural and agricultural systems we study how we can steer soil microbiomes by selecting plants, by feeding the soil with substrates such as organic matter, or via microbe inoculation methods, in order to improve plant growth, the nutritional quality or chemical composition of the plant, or resistance to external stresses such as herbivory or drought.

Research themes:

• Soil inoculation to improve tree sapling establishment in afforestation
• Plant microbe interactions to improve nutritional quality of crops
• Plant-microbe feedbacks
• Microbe induced resistance against aboveground insect pests
• Microbe induced resistance against drought in plants

• The project is available in the Fall and Spring semester.
• Number of placements available: 3 per semester.

Prerequisites

• High level undergraduate student
• Minimum GPA 3.4 
• A profound knowledge of biology, and/or microbiology, molecular biology, ecology is necessary.

Faculty Department

Faculty of Science / Insitute of Biology

The Institute of Biology (IBL) brings together biologists working in many different subdisciplines (from ecology to evolutionary biology to molecular biology and metabolomics). Research focuses on different levels, from molecule to cell, to organism to population. Studies deal with microorganisms, plants, fungi and animals (mainly insects and fish). Details can be found at the website of the IBL.