Investigating the ecological functioning of the plant phyllosphere microbiome in the context of circadian biology.

健康的植物，像所有高等生物一样，拥有广泛的微生物组，其中包含有益和致病的物种。微生物组组装的一个主要驱动力是通过植物分泌物的释放，这些分泌物可以将微生物从周围的土壤吸引到根部，然后可以传播到植物的其他区域。这些微生物在植物健康中起着重要作用，包括疾病保护，植物生长和整体植物功能，例如改善营养物质的可用性和对非生物胁迫的适应性。该项目将重点描述植物和叶际微生物组之间的关系，以及构成这个复杂环境的各种微生物物种之间的关系。该项目将通过元条形码方法充分分析这些动态，以分析一天中的时间对社区结构和组成的影响。了解植物-微生物相互作用的动态性质对于我们在气候变化和污染影响的背景下理解和监测生态系统健康或监督人为破坏后的生态系统恢复至关重要。这些知识对于制定支持可持续农业的新的虫害综合管理战略也很重要。

Healthy plants, like all higher organisms, host an extensive microbiome which contain both beneficial and pathogenic species. A major driver of microbiome assembly is by the release of exudates from the plant which can attract microbes into the roots from the surrounding soil, which can then travel to other areas of the plant. These microbes play important roles in plant health including disease protection, plant growth, and overall plant functioning through factors such as improving nutrient availability and resilience to abiotic stress. This project will focus on characterising the relationship between the plant and phyllosphere microbiome through time, as well as the relationship between the various microbial species that make up this complex environment. The project will fully characterise these dynamics via a metabarcoding approach to analyse the impact of time of day on the community structure and composition. Understanding the dynamic nature of the plant-microbe interactions will be important for our understanding and monitoring of ecosystem health in the context of climate change and the effects of pollution or in the oversight of ecosystem recovery following anthropogenic disruption. The knowledge will also be important for the development of new integrated pest management strategies in support of sustainable agriculture.