Congratulations Laura!
Friday 14 June DynaMo PhD scholar Laura Dethier defended her PhD thesis and was awarded the PhD degree with a excellent performance.
In front of colleagues and family, Laura Dethier successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled ‘From soil to plant: Exploration of beneficial bacteria from a Danish natural soil’.
Laura before the defense in the main auditorium of Frederiksberg Campus, UCPH.
Summary:
In nature, plant roots interact with complex microbial communities that perform essential functions for the growth and the health of plants. The root-associated microbiome is assembled from microbes residing in the surrounding soil and is determined by root exudation, plant immunity and microbial interactions. The exploitation of root-associated microbiomes that benefit plant productivity is regarded as a promising solution for sustainable agriculture. However, our understanding of the mechanisms governing the establishment of beneficial root-associated microbes and their underlying effects on plants remains elusive. This thesis is focused on the identification and characterization of beneficial microbes from a Danish natural soil and on the elucidation of their effects on plant growth using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.
Principal supervisors:
Professor Barbara Ann Halkier, Section for Molecular Plant Biology
Dr Deyang Xu, Section for Molecular Plant Biology
Assessment committee:
Chair: Associate Professor Mette Haubjerg Nicolaisen, Dept. of Plant and Environmental Science, University of Copenhagen
Professor Heribert Hirt, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Dr Roeland Berendsen, Utrecht University, The Netherlands