Abstract
Microorganisms living inside plant tissue, the endosphere, have a largely unexplored functional potential to expand the genomic capabilities of their host, providing nutrient acquisition, enhanced immunity against pathogens and insects, and enhanced tolerance to abiotic stress like drought and salt. Unraveling the beneficial functions of these endophytic microorganisms and the mechanisms involved in the interplay with their host provides enormous opportunities to address key societal problems of the 21st century, in particular the increased global demands for crops that are more resilient to (a)biotic stress and less dependent on fertilizers and pesticides. Despite the increasing recognition of the importance of the plant microbiome for plant growth, development and health, the genomic diversity of endophytic microorganisms, their functional traits and the mechanisms underlying the cross-talk between the endophytic microbes and their host plants are still largely unknown. Hence, a critical step in developing new microbiome-assisted approaches to improve plant growth and health is to unravel the unknown beneficial functions and regulatory networks in endophyte-plant interactions. To this end, our project integrates next generation ‘omics approaches with chemistry and advanced microscopy to i) identify functional traits and biosynthetic pathways involved in the beneficial activities of root endophytic microorganisms, ii) investigate the regulatory mechanisms and chemistry of the interactions between root endophytic microorganisms and their host plant, and iii) to localize in situ the beneficial endophytic microorganisms and the molecular dialogue with their host plant. The consortium members operate at the global forefront of highly complementary disciplines that are crucial to move this emerging science field forward to generate a new blueprint of the molecular and chemical dialogues in the plant root endosphere and to provide a fundamental basis for future engineering of plant microbiomes for enhanced crop resilience.
Netherlands