MiCRop - Microbial Imprinting for Crop Resilience

Plant roots house one of the most diverse, yet vastly neglected, microbial communities on earth. The aim of the Gravitation programme, MiCRop, is to harness the genomic potential of root microbes as a new platform for improved stress resilience of future crops and sustainable food production. MiCRop encompasses a multi-disciplinary consortium of Dutch scientists focussed on expanding the frontiers of plant-microbiome research by integrating diverse expertises; data analysis, bioinformatics, modelling, plant-microbe interactions, plant-insect interactions, plant stress physiology and metabolism, evolutionary ecology, entomology, phytopathology and microbiology. Six excellent research groups from Amsterdam (UvA, VU), Utrecht (UU) and Wageningen (WUR, NIOO-KNAW1) lead a diverse team of collaborators – including 4 strong data analysis groups - in a focussed collaboration on plant-microbiome sciences.