Join us to learn about cell biology from Carnegie scientist Brittany Belin.
Over-reliance on synthetic fertilizers for crop plants can have disastrous environmental consequences. A natural and sustainable alternative to this practice is the application of microbes that can help plants better access the nutrients in their environment. A major category of plant-fertilizing microbes contains the rhizobia, soil bacteria that can sustainably provide nitrogen fertilizer to legumes, including major commercial crops such as soybeans and peanuts, cover crops such as alfalfa and clovers, and leguminous trees such as acacias. Dr. Belin uses diverse quantitative microscopy and modeling approaches to understand the cell biology of rhizobia and other nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and the genetic factors that drive their productive interactions with plant hosts.