Ruben Eichfeld
Research Focus
Plants are continuously exposed to a plethora of microorganisms from all domains of life in nature and interactions between plants and microbes shape plant performance and the composition of the microbial community. However, plant-associated microorganisms do interact with each other as well and these microbe-microbe interactions display potential services to plants in turn. One such service, displayed by the mutualistic fungus Serendipita vermifera, is the protection from invading phytopathogens such as the necrotrophic fungus Bipolaris sorokiniana. In my doctoral project, I will produce targeted gene-deletion strains, apply biochemical and microscopic methods as well as bioinformatic tools to understand the molecular determinants that drive the antagonistic interaction between these two fungi using Arabidopsis and barley as model host plants.
