Plant-microbiome interactions in modern and ancient barley
Modern plant breeding has yielded crop genotypes that need precise anthropogenic chemical control, thereby largely neglecting that the rhizosphere microbiome can protect against diseases and promote plant nutrient availability and uptake.
We will assess the extent of the plant-microbiome interactions between 6 varieties of barley (3 modern & 3 ancient) and 9 different microbiomes under 3 different nutrient regimes. We will investigate to which extent modern varieties have lost the ability to interact with the microbiome with focus on plant/bacteria/eukaryotic micro-grazer interactions. We expect that sequencing of the root/leaf transcriptome will reveal genes and pathways involved in these interactions. In parallel, we will sequence the microbiome and perform multi-element analyses to capture the dynamics of the interactions. Our results will be a significant contribution to the understanding of the role of the microbiome in modern plant production.
The project is funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark with DKK 6,191,336.
Researchers
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flemming Ekelund | Associate Professor | +45 5182 7041 | |
| Kristian Holst Laursen | Assistant professor | +45 3533 3728 | |
| Mette Vestergård Madsen | Researcher | +45 8715 8121 | |
| Rute da Fonseca | Associate professor |
Funding
Project period: xxx 2020 - xxx 2025
Contact
Associate Professor
Flemming Ekelund
Terrestrial Ecology Section
Universitetsparken 15
DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø
fekelund@bio.ku.dk
Phone: +45 51 82 70 41
Mobile: +45 22 43 63 01
Student projects
Contact Flemming Ekelund for more information on BSc, MSc and PhD student projects under this research project.