New paper in Symbiosis

Long-time fan but first-time published in the official journal of the International Symbiosis Society, Symbiosis! This study was conducted by undergraduate students, Andres Jimenez Salinas and Randy Ho. We modified available C by growing legumes in elevated and ambient CO2 chambers to see if legume hosts would give more 'reward' to their rhizobia if carbon was more readily-available. We found that they can, but this effect is highly dependent on how much nitrogen the rhizobia provided. It was a very challenging experiment (lots of rotations to avoid effects of microclimate and individual chambers!) so we are so happy it is out now. The study even includes PHB (polyhydroxybutyrate) measures from rhizobial cells with the use of flow cytometry, which can tell us how rhizobia will survive post-symbiotic stages.