Microbial interactions in the wheat rhizosphere

Hosted by Dr Vivian Blok from our Cell and Molecular Sciences group, this seminar by Dr Timothy Mauchline (Rothamsted Research) will discuss microbial interactions in the wheat rhizosphere, specifically looking into the influence of nitrogen fertilisation and a case study of take-all wheat disease.

Abstract

The talk will be split into two parts based on a couple projects that the speaker has been recently been involved with:

• The influence of nitrogen fertilisation regime on bacterial microbiome assembly in the Broadbalk experiment at Rothamsted: Dr Mauchline will describe the role that mineral and FYM fertilisation has in shaping the microbiome and the differences between communities in the bulk and wheat rhizosphere soil over time.
• A field and lab based investigation into take-all disease of wheat: This work describes the interaction between host cultivar, dynamics of Pseudomonas fluorescens populations and take-all disease of wheat. More specifically, Dr Mauchline's team genotyped the P. fluorescens populations from wheat fields and assayed their ability to compete with each other as well as to supress the take-all fungus and related the results to wheat cultivar.

Biography

More information about Dr Mauchline can be found on his Rothamsted Research staff page.