Tasks

• Conduct research as an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Julius Kühn-Institut on nematode-associated microbiomes and their role in sustainable plant protection.

• Conduct research within the project “Microbiome of Potato Cyst and Root-lesion Nematodes and its Impact on Nematode Fitness and Biological Control,” developed in collaboration with the host supervisor at the Julius Kühn-Institut.

• Investigate the microbiomes associated with infective stages of plant-parasitic nematodes, including Globodera rostochiensis, Pratylenchus crenatus, and Pratylenchus neglectus.

• Study microbial attachment to nematode cuticles and evaluate how associated bacteria and fungi influence nematode survival, motility, and infectivity.

• Characterize nematode-associated microbial communities using molecular and microbiome analysis techniques, including amplicon sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and fungal ITS regions.

• Examine soil suppressiveness against plant-parasitic nematodes and identify microbial taxa associated with nematode suppression in agricultural soils.

• Conduct greenhouse and laboratory experiments to evaluate biological interactions between plants, nematodes, and soil microorganisms.

• Investigate the role of plant rhizosphere microbiomes and root exudates in shaping microbial attachment to nematodes.

• Identify beneficial bacterial and fungal isolates with potential for biological control of nematodes in potato and other crop systems.

• Investigate microbiome-mediated suppression of root-knot nematodes, including Meloidogyne hapla and Meloidogyne chitwoodi through plant–plant and rhizosphere interactions.

• Study plant-driven microbiome assembly in cropping systems such as cowpea–maize and tomato–cover crop systems, and its role in suppressing root-knot nematodes.

• Evaluate the conditioning of potato rhizosphere microbiomes and functional screening of microbial communities from organic soils for suppression of root-knot nematodes.

• Contribute to the development of environmentally friendly strategies and microbiome-based approaches for the management of plant-parasitic nematodes in agricultural production systems.