NIOO-KNAW

Expertise

Microbial ecology, soil & plant microbiomes, meta‘omics & bioinformatics, microbe-microbe & microbe-plant interactions, stable isotope probing, antimicrobials and volatile organic compounds. The department is a pioneer in large-scale metagenomic community profiling of microorganisms in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. We uncovered several key mechanisms underlying microbe-mediated plant growth promotion and plant protection against biotic stress, with specific emphasis on the role of antimicrobial peptides and volatile organic compounds. We recently initiated collaboration with research institutes and universities in Brazil and Colombia to access native habitats and wild relatives of crop species, providing a network and infrastructure to ‘go back to the roots’.

Awards/prizes

Royal Academy (KNAW) fellowship (Raaijmakers)
 

Top 3 publications

• Philipot L, Raaijmakers JM, Lemanceau P, Van der Putten W (2013) Going back to the roots: microbial ecology of the rhizosphere. Nature Reviews Microbiology 11:789-799
• Watrous J, et al., Raaijmakers JM, and Dorrestein PC (2012) Mass spectral molecular networking of living microbial colonies. Proceedings National Academy of Sciences USA 109:E1743-E1752
• Mendes R, Kruijt M, De Bruijn I, et al., Bakker P.A.H.M., Raaijmakers JM (2011) Deciphering the rhizosphere microbiome for disease-suppressive bacteria. Science 332:1097-1100