Drought is becoming one of the most pressing challenges in agriculture. In the rhizosphere, beneficial bacteria can support plants by improving nutrient availability, stimulating root growth, and helping to maintain water status. Among these, Actinobacteria are gaining attention as promising partners that may help crops cope with water limitation. Yet we still understand surprisingly little about how these interactions play out across different crop genotypes and whether traditional landraces and modern hybrids benefit equally from microbial support.

Are you interested in exploring how plants and microbes work together to cope with drought stress? Would you like to gain hands-on research experience at the interface of plant physiology and microbial ecology?

If you enjoy working in a lab environment, this project offers the opportunity to investigate whether Actinobacterial inoculation can influence drought responses in maize, and whether the effect differs between a landrace and a modern cultivar.

You will work with two contrasting maize genotypes grown under controlled conditions in climate chambers and help explore how microbial inoculation shapes plant morphology, physiology, and stress tolerance. Understanding these interactions can provide valuable insights into the role of beneficial microorganisms in building more resilient cropping systems.

You will gain hands-on experience in experimental and analytical work. You will help set up and maintain drought experiments in controlled climate chambers, apply bacterial inoculants, and monitor plant development. You will collect data on root and shoot traits, measure physiological parameters such as stomatal conductance and leaf water potential, and assess microbial activity in the rhizosphere. Additionally, you will gain experience working with and interpreting the collected data.

This project is planned to start from July 2026.

For more information please contact Saniv Gupta or Mohsen Zare.