MSc Exit Seminar – Winfield Yim (Yoshioka Lab)

Abstract

The ability of soil microorganisms to protect plants has been known for a century and their biotechnological use for crop protection has gained increasing attention. In this study, to identify bacterial strains that can protect crop plants and understand their mechanisms, two bacterial libraries were screened in Arabidopsis thaliana or Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) against Botrytis cinerea and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) DC3000. Through this project, a high-throughput imaging system was developed and in total, 19 bacteria were identified to mitigate disease symptoms. Some of these isolates exhibited direct anti-microbial activity, while other strains did not, suggesting that they induce immunity, termed induced systemic resistance (ISR). In addition, some of the strains showed plant growth promoting effects. Overall, I have established the high throughput method to identify plant immunity-inducing bacteria that can be used for further agricultural biotechnological research.