Pruess Lab

We are a bacterial physiology lab and bacterial motility has been at the core of our research program for two decades.

Dr. Birgit Pruess

Bacterial motility has been at the core of my research program for two decades. Ongoing research in the lab is focused on bacterial motility as a recruitment tool for plants to recruit soil bacteria to their microbiome. We focus on peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers and like to investigate the effect of known plant exudates that bacteria swim towards (e.g. succinate) on the effect that bacteria such as Rhizobium or Azospirillum have on plant growth characteristics. The goal is to improve currently used technologies that take advantage of Rhizobium and/or Azospirillum by adding pre-biotics (succinate) to the probiotic growth enhancing bacteria. There is a possibility that the lab might take a graduate student in Spring 2023.

PUBLICATIONS

PRUESS BIO