Which microorganisms live near and inside plant roots? How do they contribute to plant health? Can microorganisms be employed in plant protection?

The overall aim of this project is to understand, on the molecular level, how the bacterium V. fischeri cells interacts with their squid host.

We aim to develop a microfluidic platform that can parallelize testing the performance and characteristics of pure, mixed and environmental bacteriophage samples.

How do nonmotile microbes leverage communal motility?

We examine how soil-derived legacy effects of plants structure natural ecosystems, determine aboveground plant insect interactions, and how we can use soil legacy effects to restore degraded ecosystems.

How and why latex bearing plants select specific chemical compounds for eco-chemical interactions with its biotic factors?

The structure of bacterial cells provides crucial clues about their interaction with their host. What are the key structural features of a bacterial cell that determine pathogenicity? What roles do these structures play in the life cycle, and how do they change during the infection process?

How can we manipulate the biotic and abiotic environment to increase thrips resistance in tomato and chrysanthemum? More specifically we ask: How can plant secondary metabolites that are not soluble in water be delivered to plants in seed coating or root dipping treatment? Can bacteria be used to…

We examine how soil inoculation influences aboveground organisms (i) directly, and indirectly via (ii) its effects on plant chemistry or volatile emission, or via (iii) mediating the effects of belowground pathogens on aboveground organisms via the shared plant.

Which plant leaf characteristics are involved in thrips resistance in tomato?

What is the function of the insect serosa?

Why do plants produces always produced so many slightly differing metabolites within a particular chemical class?

Can we exploit the cell death machinery of the host to develop new host-directed anti-TB treatments?

Which compounds and microorganisms that live near and inside plant roots are beneficial? Can we use this knowledge to improve the health and growth of crop plants?

We aim to develop a drug-delivery method based on the production of biomolecules directly at the target site.

The word ¨pyroptosis¨ can be understood as ¨fiery falling¨, which describes the bursting of pro-inflammatory signals from the dying cell. Our observations indicate that pyroptosis also ¨spreads like wildfire¨ and once a cell dies via pyroptotic cell death, neighbouring cells are more prone to die as…

How do plants lure microscopically small 'support teams' into their roots for protection against diseases? And what functions are activated in the microbes and the plants?

To explore the potential of marine microorganisms as producers of novel antimicrobial agents and as bioprotectants in aqua- and agriculture, using an integrative, ecology-based strategy for bioprospecting.

Can metabolomic profiling be used to predict resistance against insect herbivores in plants?

Effective host defence against tuberculosis bacteria depends on a properly balanced level of inflammation. The Inflammafish project uses zebrafish larvae to study how autophagy controls this inflammation and vice versa.

How is inflammation in tuberculosis controlled by interplay between autophagy and inflammasome signalling?

TRANSAUTOPHAGY is a European COST action to promote multidisciplinary research on autophagy and translation of knowledge to applications.

We will study how inoculation of former arable land with soil (including the microbiome, soil fauna and seeds/rhizomes of ground flora) from old forests along with planting targeted tree species mixtures will improve productivity and more rapidly restore forest-adapted communities and ulttimately result…

We aim to unravel the molecular mechanisms involved in the transformation of eukaryotic cells by Agrobacterium.

How do mycobacteria subvert the defenses of host immune cells?

Efficient gene-targeting during meiosis

Can we enhance the capacity of host immune cells to kill mycobacteria via production of reactive nitrogen species?

How can Staphylococcus aureus bacteria subvert the host immune system?

What is the role of cell wall-deficiency in the persistence of tuberculosis?

Is translocation of nucleases possible via Agrobacterium T4SS and is it efficient enough for mutagenesis?

Who benefits from CXCR/CXCL chemokine signaling during infection: host or pathogen?

How is Pol θ responsible for T-DNA integration, and how do other DNA double-strand break repair pathways interact with Pol θ? How may we manipulate T-DNA integration to stimulate error-free integration at a predetermined genomic site?

Utilization of plant-originated products as new antibiotics

The central question of this Vici proposal is to investigate if, and how actinobacteria exploit life without a cell wall.

Through his project we will unravel the global regulatory networks that control gene expression in Streptomyces bacteria and allow them to properly respond to major changes in the environment; we will then harness this knowledge to activate and identify novel antibiotics

The project MiCRop receives 20.3 million euros from the Gravitation programme of the Dutch Research Council (NWO). MiCRop will unravel the microbial community around crops. This knowledge will help to develop more sustainable crops that require fewer fertilizers and pesticides. Leiden professors Jos…

What are the genes and molecular mechanisms involved in bacteria-mediated plant drought tolerance?

Which immune mechanisms are involved in host defense against Staphylococcal infection?

How can zebrafish models be used to gain a better understanding of host-pathogen interaction mechanisms and to screen new drugs for infectious disease treatment?

How can zebrafish research help understanding human diseases?

What are the host immune defence mechanisms that control intracellular infections and how are these subverted by pathogens?

Can drugs that target host signaling pathways be used to eradicate antibiotic-resistant bacteria?

The SNP genotyping line offers flexible genotyping for small and large projects at affordable price and high quality. The use as SNPs as molecular markers is very versatile and can be used for a wide variety of scientific questions ranging from paternity analysis, conservatuion genetis towards QTL…

Leaf-eating caterpillars greatly enrich their intestinal flora by eating soil. Even effects of plants that previously grew in that soil can be found back in bacteria and fungi in caterpillars. Researchers from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) and Leiden University write about this discovery…

How do plant defense genes get activated?

Fungi living in vanilla plants play a role in the development of the taste and smell of vanilla, according to Shahnoo Khoyratty of the Institute of Biology Leiden. PhD defence on 27 October.

Two bacterial species team up inside the plant root system to rescue their host from fungal infection. This was discovered by a team of microbiologists and bioinformaticians from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Wageningen University, and the Institute of Biology Leiden. They also identified the…

Identification and characterization of components of DNA repair pathways and their role in Agrobacterium T-DNA integration and repair of CRISPR/Cas induced DSBs.