Droevendaalsesteeg 10
6708 PB Wageningen
The Netherlands
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About
I am aiming to develop applications of microorganisms for a sustainable agriculture from an ecological perspective. I focus on finding the microbial assembly patterns and deploying them to provide beneficial functions to plants. My long-term goal is to develop a toolbox for plant improvement via their ever-associated beneficial microorganisms.
In current project, my research goal is to determine the impact of plant domestication on the taxonomic and functional diversification of the root microbiome, especially in identifying ‘missing’ plant microbes, their genomes and biosynthetic genes. Current research is focusing on identifying molecules produced by modern or wild tomato plants that recruit and/or activate beneficial ancestral microbiota and their functions from tomato native soil or commercial greenhouse soil.
Biography
Scientific outlook.
Gaining a detailed insight into the microbial functional traits, interactions with resident microbiome and host plants which can benefit plants represents the next step in my scientific development. This step is necessary for bridging the targeted application of microorganisms in agriculture (both greenhouses and fields) with observations and quantifications of plant associated microbial functions.
Academic communications and service.
I am well-connected in the international scientific community of microbial ecology, as shown by the fact that I presented my research in six international conferences, enabled amongst others through travel grants to attend “ISME17” in Leipzig (Germany) and “The Natural Products and Biocontrol 2018 congress” in Perpignan (France). I co-convened one session in Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting 2019, and am organizing the webinar series “Holo-omics”, starting in August 2022.
I am a member of the “ESF College of Expert Reviewers” to asses grant applications for the European Science Foundation, and am a peer reviewer for scientific journals including Ecology letters, Microbiome, New Phytologist, Environmental Microbiology, and Scientific reports.
Research group
Research groups
CV
Employment
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2022–PresentPostdoc Microbial Ecology, NIOO-KNAW, the Netherlands
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2020–2022Postdoc ECOBIO, University of Rennes 1, France
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2019–2020Postdoc Ecology and Biodiversity, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Education
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2016–2019PhD Ecology and Biodiversity, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
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2013–2016MSc training Plant Nutrition, Nanjing Agricultural University, China
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2009–2013BSc Agricultural Resources and Environment, Nanjing Agricultural University, China
Ancillary activities
Publications
Peer-reviewed publications
Exploring the temporal dynamics of a disease suppressive rhizo-microbiome in eggplants
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110319The rhizosphere microbiome is important for plant health, yet their contributions to disease resistance and assembly dynamics remain unclear. This study employed rhizosphere microbiome transplantation (RMT) to delineate the impact of the rhizosphere microbiome and the immune response of eggplant (Solanum melongena) on resistance to bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum. We first identified disease-suppressive and disease-conducive rhizosphere microbiome in a susceptible tomato recipient. Using a non-destructive rhizobox and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we monitored the dynamics of both microbiome types during the eggplant development. Most differences were observed at the early stage and then diminished over time. The suppressive microbiome maintained a higher proportion of initial community members throughout eggplant development and exhibited stronger deterministic processes in the early stage, underscoring the importance of plant selection in recruiting protective microbes for rhizosphere immunity. Our study sheds light on the development of microbiome-based strategies for plant disease management and resistance breeding.
Editorial: Synthetic microbial communities
In nature, diverse microorganisms do not act as individuals but rather interact and communicate with one another in a dynamically changing microbial community, they are essential for maintaining the Earth's biosphere and for the survival of plants and animals as they contribute to nearly all biogeochemical cycles on earth. However, studying microbial populations directly in their natural environment poses significant challenges due to their vast population size and complex interaction network. This difficulty hampers our ability to predict the behavior of microbial communities in nature, thereby limiting our understanding of the functionality of microorganisms in the natural environmental systems and developing and utilizing microbial resources. Further, the inherent complexity of the natural microbiota makes it immensely challenging to establish causality and, subsequently, dissect mechanisms. One emerging strategy to tackle the aforementioned challenge is to use simplified, synthetic microbial communities (SynComs).https://doi.org/10.1002/imt2.172
