Descripción del proyecto
Exploración de los mecanismos de migración de los microbios del suelo
Los microbios del suelo desempeñan un papel vital en el reciclaje y la distribución de nutrientes que favorecen el crecimiento de las raíces. Su actividad determina esencialmente la fertilidad del suelo y la salud general de la vida vegetal. Dados los índices actuales de degradación del suelo, una mejor comprensión de la migración y colonización de los microbios del suelo podría conducir a la revitalización de suelos contaminados o infértiles. El equipo del proyecto MICOL-FUNTRANS, financiado las acciones Marie Skłodowska-Curie, investigará el mecanismo del transporte mediado por hifas fúngicas, en el que facilitan la translocación de bacterias. Inicialmente, el equipo del proyecto pretende caracterizar e identificar los microbios migratorios en condiciones simuladas. A continuación, utilizará los resultados para llevar a cabo una investigación pionera «in situ» sobre el desarrollo del suelo en el antepaís estéril de un glaciar ártico.
Objetivo
Microbes in soil drive ecosystem services defining life on the Earth. Translocation of these microbes is key features in the spatial exploration of soil. This directly impacts major ecological processes such as niche colonization and the development of soil structure, but knowledge of how microbes migrate in soil is scarce. A potential universal mechanism is fungal hyphae mediated transport (FHMT) where bacteria use hyphae of fungi as a route to translocate in a directed manner. However, this has been solely observed in the laboratory, but not in soil where single-cell level studies are restricted by technical limits. MICOL-FUNTRANS overcomes these limitations by developing and exploiting a novel system combining microfluidics, microbiological and microscopical methods to i) observe microbial movement in soil-like systems and ii) identify single involved organisms. Micro-channels will provide treatments to compare soil colonization and structure formation with and without FHMT. Ultimately, findings will be upscaled to an ecological level in a dedicated field study using a glacier forefield in the Arctic, which constitutes a unique natural laboratory to study initial soil development as ongoing climate change melts glaciers and frees vast areas of barren soil at present.
The results of this project will foster an integrated view on the soil biome and push research on bacterial-fungal interactions to the centre of attention in soil microbiology and related industries. Specifically, knowledge of migration rates of microbes in soil will impact models on nutrient distribution and efforts in bioremediation of contaminated soil. A better understanding of the initial stages of soil structure formation at the micro-scale will impact efforts in soil quality and health preservation related actions, a topic of highest societal and economic interest as the degradation of soil is one of the most pressing environmental threads we are currently facing.
Ámbito científico
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsmicrofluidics
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologybacteriology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologymycology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinador
14473 POTSDAM
Alemania