Malin Klein
I am interested in plant-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere of crop plants and their wild relatives with special emphasis on legumes under nutrient deprivation.
During my Masters I focused on plant biology and genetics at the University of Münster. Afterwards, I held a position as research technician at Toby Kiers’ symbiosis group here at the VU working with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. During my PhD I hope to combine both fields, plants and microbes. More specifically, I investigate the assembly of the root microbiome under biotic/abiotic stresses in wild and cultivated crop plants and the underlying mechanisms. The project is part of the “Microbial Imprinting for Crop Resilience” project (www.microp.org).
Selected Publications
Temporal tracking of quantum-dot apatite across in vitro mycorrhizal networks shows how host demand can influence fungal nutrient transfer strategies. Anouk van’t Padje, Loreto Oyarte Galvez, Malin Klein, Mark A. Hink, Marten Postma, Thomas Shimizu, E. Toby Kiers. ISME J (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-00786-w
Mycorrhizal Fungi Respond to Resource Inequality by Moving Phosphorus from Rich to Poor Patches across Networks. Whiteside, M. D., Werner, G., Caldas, V., Van’t Padje, A., Dupin, S. E., Elbers, B., Bakker, M., Wyatt, G., Klein, M., Hink, M. A., Postma, M., Vaitla, B., Noë, R., Shimizu, T. S., West, S. A., & Kiers, E. T. (2019). Current biology : CB, 29(12), 2043–2050.e8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.061