An Unfamiliar Form of Communication
There are definitely more ways to communicate than using words, and human beings are not the only ones who can communicate with each other.
Doctoral candidate Bridget O’Banion studies the process of chemotaxis between plant root systems and bacteria, an unfamiliar form of inter-species communication.
“Plants also have bacteria that live inside of them. These bugs help them to ward off pathogens, help them to absorb nutrients from the soil, and help them to retain water.”
Where humans can move around and leave an environment that’s potentially harmful, plants simply have to remain in place, making them vulnerable to pathogens and other harmful environmental changes. As a result, plants have to adapt by working with the microbes around them.
“The plant can continually recruit and repel different microbes from the soil based on what it needs. It can send out different signals into the soil to kill or attract different microbes to live inside its tissue.”
What do the bacteria get out of this relationship? Well, plants can synthesize their own food, primarily in the form of sugars. Microbes feed on a variety of these plant-made carbon sources and thrive in the niche provided to them by the plant.
For her projects, O’Banion focuses on plant root systems, and how each part releases a different kind of chemical to attract certain microbes. This is called chemotaxis, and it’s how plants and microbes communicate to form that mutually beneficial symbiosis.
“My favorite part of the process is generally the independence it’s given me. My PI from the get-go let me pick my questions and pursue my own project. Every day when you’re in the lab, you’re seeing something that’s potentially the first thing anyone has ever observed.”
Independence certainly defines her experience. O’Banion’s process is unique to the average graduate student, since her mentor and other members of her lab changed institutions in 2020, while she remained at UT. Despite the difficulty this poses, O’Banion says that she’s learned to adapt to switching to a more remote collaboration, and has received support from the other professors in the department.
“There’s no more swiveling my chair around and chatting with the other grad student in my lab. But the department has been super wonderful in making sure I still have a space where I can still do my work and providing me with any support I need.”
Communication comes in many different forms. Whether it be our face-to-face conversations, or through Zoom collaborations, Bridget O’Banion plans to continue studying plant-microbe interactions, both commensal and pathogenic.