Research

Current Projects

Developing a new plant-microbial breeding platform. Virginia Soybean Board. PI Williams, co-PI Bo Zhang

Microbial community change during vegetative succession and soil-ecosystem development. National Science Foundation, Population and Community Ecology. Co-PIs W.B. Whitman and K. Jangid

Developing sustainable plant-microbial interactomes to feed an impoverished world: exploiting gene diversity for Fe and Zn accumulation in tubers of potato and its interaction with helper microbes. Gates Foundation and Institute for Critical Technologies and Applied Sciences. R. Veilleux and Williams share lead PI status.

Microbial functional changes and soil protein accrual during soil pedogenesis. USDA-NIFA, Microbial communities in soil, air, and water. Co-PI: K. Xia Long term goals

Unraveling Mineral Surface Reactions of Amino Acids and Small Peptides Using Phage Display Technology Coupled with Synchrotron-Based Spectroscopy. National Science Foundation, Low Temperature Geobiology. PI: K. Xia

Completed Projects

• Microbial community responses to water stress in soil. USDA-NRI
• Impact of agricultural land management on microbial communities. USDA-NRI
• N-fixation associated with feedstock grasses. DOE