How different soils affect root and microbe interactions
Coastal and inland plants - how do they differ?
Photo by Greg Jurgajtis on Unsplash
Lead researchers: Dr Sina Fischer and Assoc. Prof. Gabriel Castrillo
How do microbes interact with plants and their roots? Does this interaction differ if the soil is salty? These are the broad questions we ask at the start of this project. In our experiment. we are growing the same types of plants on 3 different soil samples from Spain: one taken from close to the coast; one halfway towards an inland site; and one fully inland. We are monitoring and assessing how they grow, which microbes are present in and around the plant, which ions they accumulate and how their gene expression changes.
The interesting initial differences in response between the plants growing on the three different soils give rise to further, more detailed questions that the project also aims to answer.
Funded by the Future Food Beacon