Identification and analysis of the mycorrhizosphere of flower bulbs
Virtually all plants rely on a symbiotic relationship with microorganisms. While many microorganisms are generally present in the soil, a more specialised microbiome is formed around the roots of the plant, called the mycorrhizosphere.
Surprisingly, the microbiome of soils are still poorly understood. Having a better understanding of what makes a ‘good’ soil microbiome is especially interesting for land that is intensely used for crops or production of flower bulbs. Such businesses will need to move to a more biological approach due to regulations and resistance of pathogens. Knowing what makes a good microbiome for a specific crop could help this transition. Furthermore, such data may also help prevent crop losses which is a common problem for farmers.
Apart from the poorly understood microbiome of the soil, even less is known about the mycorrhizal species present in the soil and around the roots of the crops, while it is likely that crops will gather a beneficial mycorrhizal community around their roots. To shed more light on this you will focus on the microbiome in tulip fields and analyse the mycorrhizosphere occupying the roots of the flower bulbs. In the last two years we have gathered a lot of data by isolating DNA from these soils and used metagenomics and Nanopore sequencing to learn more about the microbiomes present.
Last year we have also set up a method specifically for the mycorrhizosphere using sequencing of a mix of amplicons to identify species present. In this study, you will be continuing this work by thoroughly analysing the data that is present. Another goal is to translate these findings to make an easy-to-understand analysis for the farmers, telling them more about the microbiome in their fields and what this might mean for them.
Finally, you will also be able to extend the study on the mycorrhizosphere of tulip bulbs by isolating DNA from tulip roots and sequence this using the amplicon approach. The data that will come out is very exciting as basically nothing is known about these communities and you will be the first to properly analyse this. Such information is eagerly awaited by the tulip industry.
Methods
- DNA isolatie
- Metagenomics (16s sequencing)
- qPCR
- Amplicon
Project information
| Project type | Spin-off of RAAK-mkb project Geschikte bodem voor duurzame tulpenteelt (Suitable soil for sustainable tulip cultivation) |
| Running time | n.a. |
| Status | Finished |
|
Research group(s) |
Innovative Molecular Diagnostic, Bio-informatica |
| Project lead | Wouter van Zon (BM) |
| Teacher researcher | Wouter van Zon (BM) |
| Analyst(s) | Angela Hoogenboom (BM) |
| Student(s) | 1 student BM 4th year |
| Partner(s) | - |