How presence, abundance and enzymatic activities of AM and EM fungi differently affect soil carbon sequestration processes?

What are the global relationships between environmental conditions and abundance of distinct types of mycorrhizal fungi in soil and plant roots?

In this PhD study, I aim to deepen our understanding of the influence of major mycorrhizal types, namely arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) and ectomycorrhizae (EM), on the global soil carbon cycle and their potential distribution changes under future environmental shifts.

Mycorrhizas are symbiotic associations between soil fungi and most plant species.

The mycorrhizal symbiosis is among the most widespread species interactions on Earth⁠. This thesis focuses on orchid mycorrhiza, a unique mycorrhizal type that has caught scientists’ attention for centuries⁠.

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. Smets, Co-promotor: Dr. V.S.F.T. Merckx

Promotor: E.F. Smets, Co-promotor: J. Geml

This project intends to provide the required knowledgebase for the design of novel mild intervention protocols to prevent fungal food spoilage.

Environmental scientist Nadia Soudzilovskaia has been awarded the prestigious, international Bessel-Forschungs prize issued by the Von Humboldt foundation. This German award is issued to outstanding foreign mid-career scientists that collaborate with German researchers. ‘The combination of different…

Nadia Soudzilovskaia (CML), Martijn Bezemer (IBL / NIOO) and Harrie van der Hagen (ecologist at Dunea) gave an interview to NPO1 Radio about the TERRA-Dunes project.

Music from a compostable cello, photographs and scents of fungi and a woven tapestry. With her upcoming multimedia project Super Organism, visual artist Suzette Bousema enables people to experience the underground fungal network with all their senses. Environmental scientist Nadia Soudzilovskaia and…

This thesis aims to investigate the effect of tripartite interaction between microbial inoculants, the plant, and herbivore insects on the rhizosphere microbiome and volatilome. We investigated the rhizosphere microbiome and volatilome of tomato plants exposed to insect herbivory and/or inoculated with…

On 11 May 2016 a prestigious NWO Vidi grant (NWO's Innovation Research Incentives scheme) has been awarded to Nadia Soudzilovskaia for her research proposal entitled “Do mycorrhizal fungi mediate soil carbon fate?”, aimed to understand mycorrhizal impact on soil carbon sequestration.

Promotor: E.F. Smets Co-promotor: J. Geml

Leiden researchers have compiled information collected by scientists over the past 120 years into a database of plant-fungal interactions. This important biological data is now freely available for researchers and nature conservationists. Publication in New Phytologist.

Which microorganisms live near and inside plant roots? How do they contribute to plant health? Can microorganisms be employed in plant protection?

Professor of Fungal Genetics and Biotechnology Arthur Ram explains how fungi can help us be more sustainable.

A special relationship between plants and fungi, which plays an important role in carbon storage in soil, has the potential to slow down climate change. However, the amount of carbon stored in soil is decreasing as a result of human activity. This is what researchers say in a publication in Nature Communications.…

Ebru Alazi ‘hacked’ an enzyme-producing system in the fungus Aspergillus niger in order to produce renewable energy more easily. She manipulated the fungus, making it produce more pectinases: enzymes mainly used in the food industry and in the production of renewable energy, such as biofuels. Promotion…

Beautiful microscopic specimens play the leading role in the course 'Biodiversity Plant' for first-year Biology students. Normally these are put back in storage right after the course. But not this year!

Fungi living in vanilla plants play a role in the development of the taste and smell of vanilla, according to Shahnoo Khoyratty of the Institute of Biology Leiden. PhD defence on 27 October.

Mycoheterotrophy is a particular mode of life in which plants obtain carbohydrates from their associated fungal partners, instead of by using photosynthesis.

On 19 April, CML researcher Nadia Soudzilovskaia gave an invited talk at The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) about her VIDI-funded work on impacts of mycorrhizas on ecosystem functioning. During this project she will closely collaborate with GBIF colleagues.

Promotores: Prof.dr. H. van Veen & Prof.dr. W. de Boer (Wageningen University)

Fungi germinating in the lungs of patients. Doesn’t sound too nice, does it? Luckily, humans can deal with this normally, and we are able to clear the infection before anything comes to harm. However, in people with health issues, Aspergillosis can cause a lot of damage, especially if the fungus becomes…

Research aims: Identification of key genes involved in programming the cellular architecture of A. niger & Genetic engineering of A. niger in order to improve its secretory capacities and rheological behavior under industrial fermentation conditions.

This functional genomics project aims at understanding the biology of the underlying mycelium differentiation and autolysis processes in much more detail.

PhD defence

PhD defence

How the global distribution of vegetation stands dominated by arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal plants relate to principle aspects of belowground carbon accumulation processes?

What is the best way to restore dune ecosystems? The project TERRA-Dunes researches the role of soil microbes in the development of natural dune areas. Recently, the project went into a new phase: planting 412 oak seedlings grown in different type of soils.

PhD defence

We aim to develop A. niger strains that produce more starch degrading enzymes even in the absence of starch.

What are the functions of autophagy in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger?

This thesis describes the antimicrobial discovery strategy developed in our group, the den Hertog Group at the Hubrecht Institute. It includes a cultivation-based screening approach for novel antimicrobial agents from the source of fungi, and a bacterial time-lapse imaging approach for antimicrobial…

Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a gram-negative plant pathogen belonging to the family Rhizobiaceae, is the causative agent of crown gall disease, which can affect many plant species including agronomically important ones.

We aim to unravel the molecular mechanisms involved in the transformation of eukaryotic cells by Agrobacterium.

We investigate bacteria and fungi to understand their malicious or beneficial impact on food crops and their pathogenic or antibiotic role in human health.

Utilization of plant-originated products as new antibiotics

Soil ecologists Emilia Hannula (Leiden) and Elly Morriën (UvA) received the Golden Medal of Teylers Tweede Genootschap on 5 November. They received the prize for their submission to a competition on sustainable soil management.

Microbial Sciences' contribution to the Host-Microbe Interactions research theme is to investigate how beneficial or disease-causing microbes associate and interact with their host.

This project aims to further understand the molecular details related to the biosynthesis and function of Galf containing glycoconjugates in fungal Aspergillus spp.

What is the function of the insect serosa?

Animal Sciences’ contributions to the Host-Microbe Interactions research theme focus on the interaction of animal hosts with pathogenic microbes but also the beneficial role of the gut microbiome.

Host-Microbe Interactions is one of the four research themes of the Institute of Biology Leiden.