This National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) Project Grant award to North Carolina State University (NC State) for $1,453,830 will support research to discover and test microbial genes that enhance the ability of beneficial microbes to colonize and persist on plant roots. The 4-year project aims to:
Generate functional metagenomic libraries from soil and rhizosphere DNA and apply them to plants to explore how host genotype affects microbial load enhancement genes.
Investigate the impact of microbial community composition and abiotic stressors on functions that increase microbial abundance on and within plant roots.
Test whether genes enhancing microbial load are enriched in root-associated metagenomes and examine effects of removing these genes from soil microbes.
The research seeks to identify factors that improve long-term survival and benefits of plant-associated microbes, which could enable better agricultural applications. The project will also engage high school students and conduct exchanges between graduate students at NC State, University of Kansas, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem.