Soil microorganisms play fundamental roles in cycling of soil carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients, yet we have a poor understanding of how soil microbiomes are shaped by their nutritional and physical environment. In this study, we investigated the successional dynamics of a soil microbiome during...

As part of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) Science Focus Area program, we are investigating the impact of environmental change on microbial community function in grassland soils. Three grassland soils, representing different moisture regimes, were selected for ultra-deep...

The soil microbiome is central to the cycling of carbon and other nutrients and to the promotion of plant growth. Despite its importance, analysis of the soil microbiome is difficult due to its sheer complexity, with thousands of interacting species. Here, we reduced this complexity by developing...

"Deconstructing the Soil Microbiome into Reduced-Complexity Functional Modules" The soil microbiome represents one of the most complex microbial communities on the planet, encompassing thousands of taxa and metabolic pathways, rendering holistic analyses computationally intensive and difficult. Here...

"Visualizing the Hidden Half: Plant-Microbe Interactions in the Rhizosphere" Plant roots and the associated rhizosphere constitute a dynamic environment that fosters numerous intra- and interkingdom interactions, including metabolite exchange between plants and soil mediated by root exudates and the...

Elmore JR, Dexter GN, Baldino H, Huenemann JD, Francis R, Peabody GL 5th, Martinez-Baird J, Riley LA, Simmons T, Coleman-Derr D, Guss AM, Egbert RG. High-throughput genetic engineering of nonmodel and undomesticated bacteria via iterative site-specific genome integration. Sci Adv. 2023 Mar 10;9(10)...

Metabolite exchange between plant roots and their associated rhizosphere microbiomes underpins plant growth promotion by microbes. Sorghum bicolor is a cereal crop that feeds animals and humans and is used for bioethanol production. Its root tips exude large amounts of a lipophilic benzoquinone...

Human infections caused by viral pathogens trigger a complex gamut of host responses that limit disease, resolve infection, generate immunity, and contribute to severe disease or death. Here, we present experimental methods and multi-omics data capture approaches representing the global host...