Common mycelial networks in inter-plant signalling

Why we do research?

1. Mycorrhizae are ancient symbioses between land plants and soil fungi. These mutualisms are ubiqutous and found in the vast majority of land plants in every continent and most ecosystems.

2. Mycorrhizal fungi help plants acquire water and essential minerals as well as increase tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress.

3. By colonizing multiple plant hosts, mycorrhizal fungi create common mycelial networks or CMN. We are intrigued to test the hypothesis whether CMN can mediate inter-plant signals and understand the mechanisms how mycorryzae shape plant interactions with other microbes - both beneficial and pathogenic.

4. We aspire that our fundamental research will aid sustainable engineering of agriculture by both genetic crop improvements and supplementation of plant microbiota to boost plant defences in cultivars where molecular breeding or engineering may be yet challenging or limited.

Research themes

Arbuscular mycorrhiza mediated inter-plant signals and their role in plant defence against pathogens

We investigate inter-plant signal receiver responses using transcriptomics, small RNA sequencing, metabolomics and pathogen assays

CMN between two Medicago plants mediates inter-plant signal exchange. If the sender plants are mechanically wounded and threated with bacterial flagellin, the signal receiver plants display differences in gene expression when comparing interrupted or non-interrupted CMN. CMN connection dependant genes are enriched with DEGs related to plant defence and immunity.

Mycorrhizal diversity in tree rhizosphere and functions in inter-tree signalling

We characterise mycorrhizal diversity in tree rhyzosphere and study CMN roles in inter-tree defence elicitation and pathogen tolerance in non-model species hybrid aspen and silver birch

Leaves and roots of hybrid aspen and silver birch contain different fungal and mycorrhizal communities

Harnessing soil AMF diversity towards novel products for agiculture

We are expanding our work towards isolation of novel endemic AMF species for scalable in vitro cultivations to test their potential in improving crop yields and health

Germinating Rhyzophagus irregularis spores. We can use in carrot hairy root cultures to cultivate mycorrhizal fungi in the lab and produce spores to test mycorrhizal effects on crops.

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