Dr. Devanshi Khokhani will present a talk about her work entitled, “Harnessing Rhizosphere Microbes to Foster Plant Health.”

The abstract is as follows:

Rhizosphere, a narrow zone at the soil-root interface, is an untapped resource for discovering beneficial microbes that can fight plant pathogens and increase crop yields in a sustainable way. Uncontrolled use of conventional agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers used to manage crop yields affects soil health and eventually plant health. We study rhizosphere microbes of corn to develop robust biological control agents and biofertilizers. Through in vitro and growth chamber assays, we tested the antagonistic activity of a bacterial synthetic community (SynComs), against some of the prominent corn root rot pathogens. We found that the SynCom significantly inhibited the growth of an oomycete and some fungal pathogens and now we are in the process of identifying inhibitory microbial products secreted by the community. Next, to reduce our dependence on synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, we sought to study cross-kingdom interactions of a fungal root endosymbiont, called mycorrhizal fungi, and nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Co-inoculation of the fungus with a robust nitrogen fixer increased the colonization of corn roots and improved the transfer of fixed N to corn, with 16 to 25 % of nitrogen-derived from the atmosphere. These findings suggest that mycorrhizal fungi mediate the transfer of fixed nitrogen to plants and that the nitrogen-fixer also acts as a helper bacterium by enhancing the colonization of corn roots. Overall, our results highlight the importance and potential of rhizosphere microbes towards sustainable management of plant health.

The presentation will begin at 4:00 PM in Lapham Hall N101, preceded by an informal reception from 3:45 – 4:00 PM.