WHEN CONFRONTED WITH A DANGEROUS OR DISADVANTAGEOUS SITUATION MOST ANIMALS HAVE THE LUXURY OF BEING ABLE TO RUN AWAY. PLANTS, ON THE OTHER HAND, LACK THIS LUXURY. THIS RATHER OBVIOUS STATEMENT LEADS TO A FASCINATING QUESTION. WHAT DO PLANTS DO TO SURVIVE, ASRUNNING ISNOT AN OPTION? THE ANSWER IS MULTIFACETED AND COMPLEX, BUT ONE PIECE OF THE PUZZLE INVOLVES ASSOCIATIONS WITH MICRO-ORGANISMS. PLANTS HAVE EVOLVED OVER MILLENIA TO RELY ON THE MICROBES IN THE SOIL TO HELP THEM SURVIVE IN A VARIETY OF STRESSFUL SITUATIONS. MICROBES IN GENERAL CAN HELP WITH NUTRIENT CYCLING, DECONTAMINATION, AND A NUMBER OF OTHER SITUATIONS, BUT PLANTS CAN ALSO FORM MORE SPECIFIC ASSOCIATIONS WITH MICROBES THAT HELP THEM PULL NUTRIENTS FROM THE SOIL, PULL NITROGEN FROM THE AIR, FEND OFF PATHOGENS, PREVENT DEHYDRATION, AND MORE. MANY PLANTS SECRETE CHEMICALS INTO THE SOIL THAT CULTIVATE AND RECRUIT THE MICROBES NECESSARY FOR THESE IMPORTANT INTERACTIONS.AGRICULTURE TODAY IS BESIEGED BY MANY PROBLEMS. CLIMATECHANGE, LAND USAGE, SOIL EROSION, CONSUMER DEMANDS, A GROWING POPULATION, FERTILIZER RUN-OFF, PESTICIDE USE, AND MANY MORE ISSUES MUST BE CONSIDERED WHEN DETERMINING THE CURRENT STATE OF AGRICULTURE. DURING THE GREEN REVOLUTION, PLANT BREEDING OPTIMIZED MANY CROP SPECIES TO INCREASE THEIR PRODUCTIVITY, AND PLANT BREEDING STILL REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL TOOLS WE HAVE WHEN ADDRESSING THE NEED FOR CROP IMPROVEMENT. AS USEFUL AS PLANT BREEDING IS, IT CURRENTLY FOCUSES ON DIRECTLY IMPROVING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLANT AND CAN ONLY HELP SO MUCH WHEN IT COMES TO IMPROVING SOIL HEALTH AND DECREASING FERTILIZER USE. WE KNOW THAT SOIL MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES CAN DO MUCH TO IMPROVE THE HEALTH OF PLANTS, BUT SOIL COMMUNITIES ARE REMARKABLY DIFFICULT TO MANIPULATE IN A SPECIFIC, ADVANTAGEOUS MANNER.MY PROJECT LOOKS AT A NEW WAY TO SOLVE SOME OF THESE ISSUES. GIVEN THAT PLANTS HAVE EVOLVED FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS TO CULTIVATE AND INTERACT WITH MICROBIAL SPECIES, WHAT IF WE WERE ABLE TO BREED PLANTS THAT COULD SPECIFICALLY CULTIVATE BENEFICIAL MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES IN THE SOIL?FOR MY PROJECT I AM EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL FOR USING OATS AS A COMPANION CROP TO CULTIVATE BENEFICIAL MICROBIOMES TO IMPROVE THE HEALTH OF THE NEXT CROP IN A ROTATION. BY FOCUSING BREEDING EFFORTS ON A LOWER VALUE CROP LIKE OATS IT MIGHT BE POSSIBLE TO FOCUS ON MICROBIOME ASSEMBLY FOR ANOTHER HIGHER-VALUE CROP BRED FOR OPTIMAL YIELD. IN THAT WAY, BREEDERS DO NOT HAVE TO MAKE TRADE-OFFS IN THEIR BREEDING PROGRAMS BETWEEN YIELD AND MICROBIOME ASSEMBLY FOR HIGH VALUE CROPS. TO EXPLORE THIS POTENTIAL, I AM DOING A NUMBER OF EXPERIMENTS AT DIFFERENT SCALES. FIRST, MY COLLABORATORS AND I ARE STUDYING HUNDREDS OF OAT VARIETIES IN A FIELD SETTING. FROM THIS METHOD WE CAN: A) TAKE ROOT SAMPLES FROM EACH PLOT AND SEQUENCE THE DNA WITHIN TO UNDERSTAND WHICH MICROBIAL SPECIES ARE PRESENT AND COMPARE DIFFERENCES IN THESE COMMUNITIES BETWEEN OAT VARIETIES; B) CONNECT THESE COMMUNITY DIFFERENCES BACK TO GENETIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE OAT VARIETIES TO CLARIFY WHICH GENOMIC REGIONS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR DIRECTING MICROBIOME ASSEMBLY; AND C) PLANT CORN INTO THE OAT PLOTS AFTER HARVEST AND TRACK HOW CORN HEALTH IS AFFECTED BY THE MICROBIAL COMMUNITY LEFT BEHIND BY EACH OAT VARIETY. THROUGH THIS STUDY, WE HOPE TO PROVIDE INFORMATION FOR BREEDING PROGRAMS TO HARNESS THE POWER OF THE SOIL MICROBIOME IN AGRICULTURE TO LOWER THE NEED FOR FERTILIZER AND PESTICIDE INPUTS.THIS PROJECT ALSO INCLUDES MORE CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS USING GREENHOUSE AND GROWTH CHAMBER SPACE. BY TAKING CORN AND OAT PLANTS INTO THE GREENHOUSE WE CAN CONTROL THE ENVIRONMENT AND TEST THE BENEFITS OF INTERESTING MICROBIAL SPECIES UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS SUCH AS HIGH/LOW TEMPERATURES, NUTRIENT STRESS, AND WATER STRESS. BY STERILIZING SOIL AND THEN INOCULATING IT WITH SPECIFIC MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES FORMED BY VARIOUS OAT CULTIVARS OR SPECIFIC MICROBIAL SPECIES WE CAN ALSO TEST SPECIFIC PLANT-MICROBEINTERACTIONS IN CONTROLLED CONDITIONS.BY COMBINING THESE CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS WITH THE MORE REALISTIC CONDITIONS OF THE FIELD EXPERIMENT WE WILL PROVIDE FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR THE ROLE OF OAT VARIETIES IN CULTIVATING HEALTHY SOILS FOR SUBSEQUENT CROPS AND FOR THE BENEFITS OF SPECIFIC MICROBIAL SPECIES THAT MAY BE USEFUL AS SELECTIVE TARGETS WHEN BREEDING CROPS TO RECRUIT CERTAIN MICROBIAL SPECIES. BY STUDYING HOW CERTAIN MICROBES CAN HELP PLANTS SURVIVE THROUGH NUTRIENT, WATER, AND TEMPERATURE STRESS WE CAN START THE PROCESS OF DESIGNING PLANT-MICROBE INTERACTIONS THAT REDUCE THE NEED FOR FERTILIZER INPUTS AND HELP CROPS MITIGATE THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE.THE TRUTH IS, THE GLOBAL POPULATION IS INCREASING AND FOOD PRODUCTION NEEDS TO BECOME MORE EFFICIENT. THIS IS JUST ONE METHOD FOR REALIZING THIS NEED, BUT MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES ARE A POWERFUL, LARGELY UNTAPPED TOOL WITH THE POTENTIAL TO REVOLUTIONIZE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS. THIS PROJECT TAKES ONE STEP TOWARDS HARNESSING THE COMPLEXITY OF MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES INTO A USABLE RESOURCE.