Research on “the microbiome structure of tomato rhizosphere and its in…

Research on “the microbiome structure of tomato rhizosphere and its involvement in disease resistance” selected in National Research and Development Achievements 100 and won Ministry of Science and ICT Citation

The research output produced by our laboratory has been selected as one of the top 100 achievements in 2019 among the research and development projects financially supported from the Korean government. Our research team discovered a ‘bodyguard bacterium’ from the tomato rhizosphere, and proved that the bacterium suppresses the progress of bacterial wilt disease. The study revealed the structure and function of plant microbiome associated with disease resistance by analyzing the metagenome and verified the contribution of plant microbiome to disease resistance for the first time. It has been published in the journal Nature Biotechnology in November 2018 as a cover-entitled Article paper, and domestic and international patents have been filed, too. The work was featured several times in Nature journals, and was highlighted as the discovery of ‘new potential plant probiotics’ in The Economist. The project was supported from Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Rural development Administration, and Ministry of Science and ICT, and has been awarded as National Research and Development Achievements 100 in October 2019 and Ministry of Science and ICT Citation on Dec. 20, 2019.