Bacterial comparative genomics
Bacteria can have positive, neutral or negative effects in their interactions with plants.
SEM photo of a Serratia bacterium (photo by Saraswoti Neupane).
In our department we focus our research on positive interactions between bacteria and plants. Beneficial effects include plant pathogen suppression, stress tolerance and plant growth promotion. We use genomic tools to find the genetic background to these effects. New knowledge in this area can be applied in agriculture because it has the potential to increase harvests in a sustainable way. Comparative genomics of bacteria from rapeseed rhizosphere are studied in cooperation with the Joint Genome Institute, Department of Energy, USA . Here, we focus mainly on plant pathogen antagonistic effects of the studied bacteria.
People involved:
Nils Högberg (PhD)
Sadhna Alström (PhD)
Roger Finlay (professor)
Saraswoti Neupane (PhD student)
Salme Timmusk (PhD)