Autor:innen:
Henrike Würsig | Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Halle, Germany | Germany
Bunlong Yim | Julius Kuehn-Institute (JKI), Federal Research Institute for Cultivated Plants, Braunschweig, Germany
Marie-Lara Bouffaud | Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Halle, Germany
Eva Lippold | Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Halle, Germany
Doris Vetterlein | Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Halle, Germany/ Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany
Anna Heintz-Buschart | University of Amsterdam - Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Kornelia Smalla | Julius Kuehn-Institute (JKI), Federal Research Institute for Cultivated Plants, Braunschweig, Germany
Mika T. Tarkka | Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Halle, Germany/ German Center for integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
Better understanding of plant-soil interactions is mandatory to tackle the problems in crop production that are caused by increased frequency and intensity of drought events. Plants modify soil microbiome composition by drought-triggered alterations in the extent and quality of root exudation, and these altered microbial communities play out in plant drought tolerance. We joined the field experiment of the Priority Program 2089 “Rhizosphere Spatiotemporal Organization” to better understand how the feedback processes between the roots and the soil are affected by drought. Maize root gene expression and rhizosphere microbial community composition were investigated during a dry year and a moist year, at the time of rapid growth of maize plants, the 9-leaf stage. We hypothesize higher transcript levels of genes for plant immunity, root exudation and high affinity nutrient transporters in the dry year as compared to the moist year. We also expect that the microbial community composition is changed by drought, with an enrichment of bacteria that sporulate and host thick cell walls, but that drought also leads to an enrichment of plant beneficial bacteria that can suppress the production of the plant stress hormone ethylene.