Meet The Microbiologist - The Scientists Behind The Microbiology

How can the intricate relationship between soil microbiota and plants be managed for improved plant health? Linda Kinkel discusses new insights into the plant rhizosphere and the ways that some Streptomyces isolates can protect agricultural crops against bacterial, fungal, oomycete, and nematode infections. Julie’s Biggest Takeaways: The soil microbiome is extremely dynamic, with boom-and-bust cycles driven by nutrient fluxes, microbial interactions, plant-driven microbial interactions, and signaling interactions. Finding the source of these boom-and-bust cycles can help people to manage the microbiome communities and produce plant-beneficial communities for agricultural purposes.  Rhizosphere soil is soil closely associated with the root and is distinct from rhizoplane soil that directly touches the root. The endophytic rhizosphere are those microbes that get inside the root. Many scientists view these communities as a continuum rather than sharply delineated. Plants provide necessary carbon for the largely