Florian Hänsel
Research Focus
In nature, plant roots are colonized by many microbes, interacting in various communities. The complex networks of beneficial and pathogenic microbes form a holobiont system with the plant, shaping plant growth and development.
Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) play a key role in plant development, solubilizing soil nutrients like phosphate, synthesizing growth-modulating hormones like auxins and cytokinins, or exerting biocontrol activity over pathogens.
In my project, we combine synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and modeling approaches with state-of-the-art sequencing techniques and Omics data to investigate plant microbiomes. Through bottom-up engineering, we try to gain a systems-level understanding of root-colonizing microbes and the cellular resources and processes that govern the formation of stable communities. Through studying synthetic microbial communities, or SynComs, producing designed metabolic outputs, we build from individual microbial strains to more complex networks of interaction and aim to elucidate their relationship with plants, investigating new ways of aiding plant development and new opportunities for sustainable agriculture and food security.
