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Volume 7, Issue 2 (Suppl)
J Ecosyst Ecography, an open access journal
ISSN:2157-7625
September 18-20, 2017
September 18-20, 2017 Toronto, Canada
Joint Conference
International Conference on
International Conference on
Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology
&
Ecology and Ecosystems
Functional interaction of plant and its microbiome: What are these bacteria doing?
Shimaila Ali
A&L Biologicals, Canada
D
etermination of functional genetics of corn microbial community can lead us to find the factors involved in higher corn
productivity. Functions imparted to host plants by the microbial community include disease control by production of antibiotics,
lytic enzymes, and siderophores and stimulation of host defenses. Many microorganisms can modulate plant hormonal levels by
production of indoleacetic acid, ethylene, cytokinins, gibberellins, etc. We developed and standardized protocols for the quantitation
of seven different functions in corn microbial community, which include nitrogen fixation (
nif
), phosphate solubilization (
pqqC
),
antibiotic production (
srffA
and
fenD
mainly from
Bacilus
sp.,
phlD
and
phzF
mainly from
Pseudomonas
sp.), and production of
hydrogen cyanide (
hcnAB
). The functional genes were quantified in microbial community DNA extracted from roots, stem, and
rhizospheric soil of corn grown in fields selected by aerial infrared photography and identified as having high or average productivity
within the same fields. In almost all samples, the abundance of functional genes was directly related to high corn productivity.
However, the richness in functional gene(s) in the microbial population associated with corn was not the only factor that correlated
with productivity.
Biography
Shimaila Ali graduated with her doctorate from the University of Waterloo. Her research was based on the isolation and characterization of new plant growth-
promoting bacterial endophytes. She has worked on identifying how endophytic bacteria impact plant growth and development using both physiological approaches
as well as bioinformatics. Dr. Ali has developed identified a small number of proteins predicted to be key elements of endophytic colonization of plants by bacteria.
She joined A & L Biologicals in 2014 as NSERC post-doctoral research scientist, where she is leading a part of a research project on functional metagenomic
analysis of corn microbiome for identifying main drivers responsible for improved corn yields and other plant productivity.
shimaila@alcanada.comShimaila Ali, J Ecosyst Ecography 2017, 7:2 (Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2157-7625-C1-029