Promoting microbial nitrogen cycling to improve crop nitrogen availability

Current levels of nitrogen fertilizer application to crops are unsustainable because of rising energy costs and environmental damage. Plant root exudates can alter the activity of N cycling soil microbes and this could provide a route to more efficient N-fertilisation. However, the mechanisms governing root exudate activity remain obscure. The aim here is to use Arabidopsis and crop mutants to understand how plants manipulate microbial N cycling. Plant N preference is affected by a number of factors including carbon status. Genetically defined mutants with altered numbers of stomata will allow the dissection of mechanisms.