Using Fabricated Ecosystems to Develop Approaches for Microbiome Engineering (Invited Speaker)

Microbiomes are important drivers of plant health and beneficial microbial amendments are finding widespread application. However, these often show variable performance and lack sufficient mechanistic understanding to predict the most efficacious conditions. The current lack of control in natural environments makes it challenging to determine causal mechanisms and environmental constraints. To help address this challenge we have recently developed fabricated ecosystems (EcoFABs) that enable mechanistic studies on plant and soil microbiomes. A four-laboratory ‘ring-trial’ study revealed that these devices result in reproducible plant treatment effects across laboratories. These systems are now being used to investigate plant growth-promoting microbial amendments towards the eventual goal of being able to design microbiomes with predictable field performance.