Our research in CEPLAS centers on endophytic protists in plants, such as the pathogen Plasmodiophora brassicae, and their feedback on plant genetics and physiology. Recent discoveries of non-pathogenic endophytes within the Plasmodiophorida have the potential to identify the genetic mechanisms responsible for clubroot disease by comparing the metagenomes of pathogenic and non-pathogenic plasmodiophorids and by identifying the respective genetic control points of their host plants.

1. Rüger L, Feng K, Dumack K, Freudenthal J, Chen Y, Sun R, Wilson M, Yu P, Sun B, Deng Y, Hochholdinger F, Vetterlein D, Bonkowski M (2021) Assembly Patterns of the Rhizosphere Microbiome Along the Longitudinal Root Axis of Maize (Zea mays L.). Front Microbiol 12:614501. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.614501.
2. Fiore-Donno AM, Bonkowski M (2021) Different community compositions between obligate and facultative oomycete plant parasites in a landscape-scale metabarcoding survey. Biol Fertility Soils 57:1-12. doi: 10.1007/s00374-020-01519-z.
3. Clayton J, Lemanski K, Bonkowski M (2021) Shifts in soil microbial stoichiometry and metabolic quotient provide evidence for a critical tipping point at 1% soil organic carbon in an agricultural post-mining chronosequence. Biol Fertility Soils 57. doi: 10.1007/s00374-020-01532-2.
4. Fiore-Donno AM, Richter-Heitmann T, Bonkowski M (2020) Contrasting Responses of Protistan Plant Parasites and Phagotrophs to Ecosystems, Land Management and Soil Properties. Front Microbiol 11:1823. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.01823.
5. Fiore-Donno AM, Richter-Heitmann T, Degrune F, Dumack K, Regan KM, Marhan S, Boeddinghaus RS, Rillig MC, Friedrich MW, Kandeler E, Bonkowski M (2019) Functional Traits and Spatio-Temporal Structure of a Major Group of Soil Protists (Rhizaria: Cercozoa) in a Temperate Grassland. Front Microbiol 10:1332. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.01332.

Interview at CEPLAS Faces