Ökologie des Kern-Mikrobioms von natürlichen Lotus corniculatus-Populationen" -Phase zwei

01/01/2022 to 31/12/2024

Understanding plant microbiomes is one of the key challenges in
current plant science. In particular, we still have a limited
understanding of the dynamics of plant microbiomes in natural
populations, and of the relative importance of different biological
processes determining microbiome variation under ecologically
realistic conditions. In this proposal, we outline the continuation of a
project where we have begun to study the natural microbiome of the
common legume Lotus corniculatus, with a particular focus on organspecific
core microbiomes, and on the different factors and processes
that influence natural microbiome variation.
During the second phase of our project, we
are planning in particular (1) to refine our analyses of organ-specific
microbial networks and verify the organ-specificity of microbial
communities through SynCom experiments (using our cultures from
phase I), (2) to further characterise vertically transmitted microbes
and in particular study their function and mechanisms of transmission,
(3) to broaden our analyses of habitat factors, with shallower but
geographically broader sampling of plants and microbiomes, and (4)
to construct a predictive model of L. corniculatus microbiome
dynamics that integrates results from multiple experiments and from
both phases. After the second phase of our project, we will have
achieved a comprehensive understanding of natural microbiome variation, and we will have established Lotus corniculatus as a new
model system with extensive resources for ecological plant
microbiome research.