Microbiome Interactions and Engineering

Our research is focused on plant beneficial microbes and microbiomes with the aim of finding ´microbial solutions´ that support plant health. Our goal is to contribute to a reduction in the use of agrochemicals in agriculture. Key areas include microbe/microbiome engineering, secondary metabolite production/biotransformation and signaling in soil/rhizosphere microbiomes and how these processes relate to expression and control of plant beneficial activities. Our work combines bacterial physiology and genetics with synthetic biology, omics-technologies, analytical chemistry and ecology.

Project areas:

• Biotransformation of biocontrol metabolites in rhizosphere microbiomes.

   

• Detection of secondary metabolites in rhizosphere microbiomes using synthetic bacterial sensors.

   

• Characterization of bacterial endophytes in wheat with biocontrol properties.

   

• Identification of chemical signaling molecules among soil bacteria.

   

• Screening of microbial strain libraries for plant beneficial activities.