Project Details
Projekt
Microbial life in the rhizosphere: kinetics and visualization of the functions
Applicant
Privatdozentin Dr. Evgenia Blagodatskaya
Subject Area
Soil Sciences
Term
since 2018
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 403664478
The project Microzym focuses on self-regulatory mechanisms of the rhizosphere organization through estimating the rates of microbially mediated processes at the place of their localization. The novelty of Microzym is in coupling the microbial and enzymatic functional traits with visualized oxidative and hydrolytic processes of organic substances decomposition in the rhizosphere. Based on the results of the first phase, we will clarify the role of soil texture, nutrient deficiency and root properties as main drivers of rhizosphere self-organization in space and time scaling from the level of individual aggregates to root system. We revealed in the first phase, that plant compensated root-hair deficiency through up-regulation of enzymes decomposing microbial residues and down-regulation of enzymes acquiring N and P. As this self-regulatory mechanism was significant only in the rhizosphere on mature plants growing in the field under dry weather conditions, we will focus in the second phase on the feedback of plant genotype to nutrient limitation and water deficiency. Soil structure and soil profile formation by long-term maize monoculture in the field will be affected by decomposition of root residues from previous years, therefore the Microzym also aims to visualize the rhizosphere – detritusphere interactions linking them to estimation of localized process rates. This will be done by the combination of 1) visualization techniques newly-developed in the first phase, i.e, time-lapse zymography, oxidative zymography and micro-zymography, 2) developing new approaches visualizing organic N distribution in the rhizosphere, i.e., aminography and amino-mapping, and 3) localized micro-sampling in the epi-centrum, at the border and outside the rhizosphere hotspots. The Microzym will strongly contribute to the core field and column experiments of the PP by coupling visualization of rhizosphere processes with estimation of functional traits of enzymatic activity and microbial growth.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
