Plant-bacteria partnership reveals how roots access iron locked in soil

What happened

Giehl at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Gatersleben, revealed how Arabidopsis plants adapt their chemical communication with the bacterial root microbiota to maximize the acquisition (one company buying another) of bio-unavailable iron from acidic or calcareous soils. A new study led by Paul Schulze-Lefert from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, in collaboration with Ricardo F.H. The study is now published in Cell.