MICROCROWD

General objective:

To understand how soil microbes move in the soil to colonise plant roots. Application includes understanding the functioning of biological fertilisers, soil health and biological diversity.

Specific objectives:

• To develop model systems and an experimental setup where monitoring and quantification of the morphology and dynamics of bacterial flocks is possible,
• To generate data for the quantitative characterisation of bacterial flock movements at both micro- and macroscopic scales,
• Develop a mechanistic understanding of how individual microbial behaviour is linked to flock formation at the macroscopic scale,
• Understand how changes in environmental conditions affect associations between cultures and the growth-promoting bacterium Bacillus subtilis.