Functional analysis of drought tolerance promoting endophytes in the growth zone of maize leaves.

In addition to the growth promoting interactions between the soil microbiome and plants there is growing evidence that areal plant tissues have their own microbiome of endophytes. Several of these stimulate growth under optimal or limiting conditions, providing a potential for a sustainable enhancement of crop productivity, but how they affect the growing tissues is largely unclear. The aim of the proposed research project is to study the effects of endophytic fungi and bacteria on maize leaf growth regulation under optimal and drought conditions. Endophytic bacteria and fungi isolated from the leaf growth zone of grasses growing in arid conditions will be functionally characterised using a multidisciplinary approach. This will involve culturing and in planta testing of isolates for their effect on leaf growth under optimal and drought conditions. The genome of growth promoting isolates will sequenced, annotated and phylogenetically analysed. Functional analysis of the endophytes in planta will include kinematic analysis of cell division and expansion in the leaf growth zone, flowcytometry, NGS sequencing (plant and endoyphytic mRNA), metabolome analysis and quantification of endophyte numbers under control and drought conditions. The impact of the plant on endophyte development will be tested by comparing the colonisation and growth effects in maize varieties and selected mutants.

Keywords:PLANT GROWTH REGULATION, DROUGHT STRESS, PLANT MICROBE INTERACTION

Disciplines:Microbiomes, Cell division, Cell growth and development, Plant cell and molecular biology