MiCRop consortium members Zulema Carracedo Lorenzo and Marcela Aragon Gomez conducted a synthetic community (SynCom) experiment to identify beneficial bacteria that could enhance cabbage plant resistance to aphid infestation and drought stress. Eleven bacterial strains were selected based on their increased abundance in the cabbage rhizosphere during aphid infestation, drought stress or both. Interestingly, three out of eleven amplicon sequence variants were shared between aphid and drought treatments, suggesting a common rhizosphere response to both conditions.

Corresponding bacterial isolates from the MiCRopial bank were selected, cultured and combined into a SynCom. This SynCom was then inoculated into the rhizosphere of cabbage plants that were exposed to aphids, drought or both stresses, or a control treatment. Plant phenotypes, and soil, root and leaf samples were collected to investigate the effect of the SynCom in plant resilience to drought and aphid infestation.

Watch the video here!


The experiment was conducted in close collaboration with Deborah Cornadó and Chrats Melkonian and supervised by Karen Kloth, in collaboration with Rumyana Karlova.

The video was made by Hans Smid.