M. Sc. Project

Plant–Microbiome Responses to Drought and Heat Stress: Comparing Traditional and Modern Barley Varieties

Microbes play a fundamental role in plant growth and ecosystem functioning[SL1.1][SL1.2], yet the specific interactions between plant varieties and their environment under climate change remain an area of active exploration (Rog, Lutz, et al., 2026; Trivedi et al., 2020, 2022; Van Der Heijden et al., 2008). Modern commercial crops have been optimized for high yield, often relying on significant inputs of water and fertilizer. In contrast, wild-types and traditional landraces (varieties from before the mid-20th century) often originating from regions with harsh climates may possess unique traits for surviving drought and heat (Barnes et al., 2025; Guo et al., 2024; Kumar et al., 2020; Poets et al., 2015)[SL2.1]. This project seeks to understand how these traditional varieties compare to modern cultivars when experimentally exposed to those environmental stressors, and how their growth patterns differ in response to changing conditions. This project will contribute to a larger research initiative (https://aegisearth.bio/en), and will involve activities such as growth chamber experiments, analysis of biomass and physiological measurements to quantify plant responses to drought and heat (Rog, Malinowski, et al., 2026). It will be possible for you to help designing experiments, propose different approaches for data analysis, and refine the research questions based on your interests and observations during the project.

Dates and application

• Starting date: February 2027 (flexible)

• Duration: 6-12 months

• Contact: Prof. Dr. Marcel van der Heijden (marcel.vanderheijden@uzh.ch)

References

Barnes, C. J., Bahram, M., Nicolaisen, M., Gilbert, M. T. P., & Vestergård, M. (2025). Microbiome selection and evolution within wild and domesticated plants. Trends in Microbiology, 33(4), 447–458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2024.11.011

Guo, Y., Jayakodi, M., Himmelbach, A., Ben-Yosef, E., Davidovich, U., David, M., Hartmann-Shenkman, A., Kislev, M., Fahima, T., Schuenemann, V. J., Reiter, E., Krause, J., Steffenson, B. J., Stein, N., Weiss, E., & Mascher, M. (2024). A haplotype-based evolutionary history of barley domestication. Plant Biology. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.18.628695

Kumar, A., Verma, R. P. S., Singh, A., Kumar Sharma, H., & Devi, G. (2020). Barley landraces: Ecological heritage for edaphic stress adaptations and sustainable production. Environmental and Sustainability Indicators, 6, 100035. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indic.2020.100035

Poets, A. M., Fang, Z., Clegg, M. T., & Morrell, P. L. (2015). Barley landraces are characterized by geographically heterogeneous genomic origins. Genome Biology, 16(1), 173. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-015-0712-3

Rog, I., Lutz, S., Fesenfeld, L., Hiltbrunner, J., Bouwmeester, H., & Van Der Heijden, M. G. A. (2026). Breeding for beneficial microbial associations. Nature Communications, 17(1), 7695. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-76260-6

Rog, I., Malinowski, M., Baumann, D., Boussageon, R., Lutz, S., & Van Der Heijden, M. G. A. (2026). Impact of plant breeding on the responsiveness of maize and wheat varieties to an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal symbiont. PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET, ppp3.70219. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.70219

Trivedi, P., Batista, B. D., Bazany, K. E., & Singh, B. K. (2022). Plant–microbiome interactions under a changing world: Responses, consequences and perspectives. New Phytologist, 234(6), 1951–1959. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18016

Trivedi, P., Leach, J. E., Tringe, S. G., Sa, T., & Singh, B. K. (2020). Plant–microbiome interactions: From community assembly to plant health. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 18(11), 607–621. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-020-0412-1

Van Der Heijden, M. G. A., Bardgett, R. D., & Van Straalen, N. M. (2008). The unseen majority: Soil microbes as drivers of plant diversity and productivity in terrestrial ecosystems. Ecology Letters, 11(3), 296–310. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01139.x