Soil-borne Plant Pathogens, Soil Microbiome and Disease Control

Aim: Soil-borne plant diseases are a major obstacle to agriculture and especial difficult to manage. Many soil-borne pathogens have very resilient survival structures . A prominent example is clubroot, a global disease of Brassica crops, with no available efficient control and spores that survive in the soil for decades. We aim to identify disease suppressive and disease conducive microbiome members, including bacteria, fungi and protists.
Method: We are performing complex plant and soil physicochemical analyses to decipher underlying drivers of taxonomic and functional changes in the rhizobiome to clubroot infection including of trans-European field samples and greenhouse experiments. A focus is on the identification of potential predatory species of clubroot that could be involved in top-down control. Results: In this presentation we will provide the framework of the research and findings that provide first ideas on the importance of the plant-clubroot-soilbiome connections. This includes the core Eukaryotic microbiome in connection to clubroot.
Conclusions: By identifying pathogen suppressive and conducive soil biota and predator-prey relations, new biocontrol applications can be developed that will also be useful to control other soil-borne pathogens.