Work package 1: We study the evolution of plant-recruited root microbiomes across the plant kingdom. With precision-based methods, we analyse the root microbiome dynamics and plant response and performance of 100 wild and cultivated plant species - related to the five most important food crop families – grown under four major types of stress: nutrient deficiency, drought, pathogen infection and herbivory. This quantitative phylogenetic approach allows us to obtain a deep evolutionary understanding of stress-induced recruitment by plants of their root-associated microbiota, and the functions that the microbiome provides to the plant under different environmental stress conditions. We are also looking to understand the extent by which cultivated crop species have lost these co-evolved microbial benefits, and how to harness identified plant traits and microbial functions in future crop systems.
