Inroot | Collaborative Crop Resilience Program

Molecular Mechanisms and Dynamics of Plant-Microbe Interactions at the Root-Soil Interface (InRoot)

InRoot will provide knowledge and tools for science-based development of new crop varieties and associated microbial interventions that will improve productivity, reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides, and alleviate negative environmental impact. These critically important advances will be achieved by disentangling the effects of climate and soil type from the impact of root-microbe interactions, identifying key bacterial taxa governing the establishment of host-driven microbial networks in the rhizosphere, defining the plant genetic components that control infection of plant roots by ubiquitous and host-specific endophytes, understanding molecular mechanisms integrating root-microbe interactions into whole-plant physiology, and predicting plant performance as a function of plant and microbiota genotypes by building multiscale models. This project will focus on identifying conserved and specialized
features using genetically tractable plants representing the major food, feed, protein and oil crops: 1) the legume Lotus japonicus as a model for soybean, fava bean and other legume crops, 2) Wheat to represent maize, rice, and other cereal crops, and 3) Arabidopsis representing the non-arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) symbiotic Brassicaceae plants.

Meet our team:

Project Lead:

Professor Jens Stougaard

Aarhus University

Plant Genetics

Project Manager

Taylor Grace Fitzgerald

Aarhus University

Head of Department, Professor Erik Østergaard Jensen, Molecular Biology

Associate Professor Stig Uggerhøj Andersen, Genomics
Associate Professor Simona Radutoiu, Microbiome

Associate Professor Marianne Glasius, Chemistry
Assistant Professor Kasper Røjkjær Andersen, Biochemistry

Lecturer at La Trobe University Dugald Reid