Research Director

Haruhiko Inoue

National Agriculture and Food Research Organization
Institute of Agrobiological Sciences
Principal Researcher

Outline

Iron (Fe) is an essential micronutrient for most living organisms including flowering plants. Although abundant in mineral soils, Fe is sparingly soluble under aerobic conditions in high pH soils, especially in calcareous soil. Consequently, plants grown in this soil type often exhibit severe chlorosis owing to an Fe deficiency. Thus, I hypothesize that the root microbiota of plants grown in natural calcareous soils is enriched for bacteria that increase Fe bioavailability for plant growth. Several rhizobacteria were found to rescue plant growth under severe Fe-deficiency. In this study, I analyze the molecular basis of the bacteria to rescue the Fe-deficient plants with genetics and molecular biological approach.