A holistic approach to understanding drought adaptation in plants

Researchers currently lack clear examples of how adaptation to a shared environmental stressor affects symbiotic interactions between plants and microbial communities

Lead researcher: Dr Gabriel Castrillo

Root-associated microbes can profoundly affect the physiology and health of their host plants. These interactions are shaped by genetic variation both in the host species and in microbiome members. Plant microbiomes are largely derived from the broader soil community so the constituent microbial lineages encounter environmental stressors both with and without a host.

Researchers currently lack clear examples of how adaptation to a shared environmental stressor affects symbiotic interactions between plants and microbial communities. Using drought as a model stressor, we will disentangle the genetic, physiological, and ecological interdependencies that shape the evolution of plant microbiomes. Because community-level adaptive responses involve both evolutionary processes (e.g., mutation/drift/selection) and ecological processes (e.g., competition among species), we focus on how they combine to affect emergent microbiome properties: metagenome content and direct assays of microbial influences on plant physiology.

Funded by NSF-BBSRC