As the European Research Council announced this week, ROOTS member Eva Stukenbrock is receiving a ERC Consolidator Grant. (photo: Stefan Kolbe, Kiel University).

Last Tuesday, the European Research Council (ERC) announced funding for a new research project lead by ROOTS member Eva Stukenbrock. Within the project titled "FungalSecrets: The role of plant microbiota in the evolution of fungal pathogens and their repertoires of secreted proteins" Stukenbrock from the Botanical Institute of Kiel University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology Plön (MPI-EB) and her research team will be able to investigate how the plant microbiome, i.e. the microbial colonisation of a plant, is impacted by fungal pathogens at the molecular level. The research project, which will begin in spring and will be funded over a period of five years, is pursuing the key question of whether and how fungal pathogens influence the microbial colonisation of their host plants by releasing certain molecules to support infection. Stukenbrock, who is also a member of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1182 "Origin and Function of Metaorganisms" and spokesperson of the Kiel Plant Center (KPC) at Kiel University, is receiving a so-called ERC Consolidator Grant for these studies, which includes two million euros in funding.

In the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS, Eva Stukenbrock and her team collaborate with the aDNA laboratory and archaeobotanists to identify plant pathogens on ancient plant material and to characterise the genetic architecture of plant resistance genes in early domesticated species. We sincerely congratulate on the success with the new proposal!