Plants accommodate in practically all their tissues complex microbial communities (microbiota), which
collectively form the plant microbiome and are seen as an extension of the host phenotype. Thus,
these microorganisms are important for supporting the plant to cope with a range of different stress
situations. Based on the capacities of plant-associated microorganisms to alleviate plant stress when
exposed to drought, our hypothesis is that soils containing stress-alleviating microorganisms have stress-
suppressive effects. The principal aim of MICROSUPPRESS is to test various soils for stress-
suppressiveness and to identify indicator and potentially responsible microbial taxa by advanced
molecular analyses. The project will elucidate drought-suppressive functions mediated by microbiome
members by targeting the whole microbiome and will thus provide novel insight into taxa and functions
relevant for stress suppressiveness.