Zachary Noel - profile information

Research

The lab studies and teaches about the fungi, bacteria, and oomycetes associated with a crop plant to understand how complex dynamics in various plant organs/environments contribute to disease development and abiotic stress tolerance. We will focus on how agricultural management shapes fungal and oomycete diversity and interactions within the plant microbiome.


Plant Microbial Community Ecology

Add water, and the seed comes to life – this starts an intimate relationship with the microbial community. Seeds imbibe water, releasing nutrient-rich seed exudates that fuel the initial interactions between soil and seed microbes. However, many of these interactions are still a mystery. The interactions around a seed, termed the spermosphere, are critical since the outcome can determine the survival of the crop within 12-24 hours. We aim to better understand this critical plant environment and how microbiomes form and function from when a seed is planted to when it emerges from the soil. Implications of this research can include a better understanding of how microbiomes form and function, better predictability of seedling emergence, and better efficacy of seed treatments.

Manipulation of microbial communities for implementing services that microbes play for crops is a grand scientific challenge. We aim to understand the effects of bacterial and fungal inoculants on the form and function of the microbiome. This research aim involves the development of tools for directly quantifying microbes, building and maintaining culture collections of plant-associated microbes, and developing new solutions for plant health.