HOW TO FIND A ROOT : MODELING AND MICROFLUIDIC PLATFORMS DEVELOPED FOR INVESTIGATION OF NON-CANONICAL SMALL MOLECULE C-DI-GMP’S ROLE IN CHEMOTAXIS OF AZOSPIRILLUM BRASILENSE

Chemotactic bacteria explore their environments and bias their travel towards attractive gradients and away from repellant gradients. Plant root microbiomes are enriched for bacteria with chemotaxis genes, and soil microbes have more complex chemotactic machinery than model systems like E. coli. The temporal, chemical, and spatial complexity of soil likely necessitates nuance for chemotaxis. Model cereal crop-associated bacterium Azospirillum brasilense has c-di-GMP binding domains on several of its chemoreceptors, and under laboratory conditions, c-di-GMP plays a role in modulating chemotaxis. To investigate how c-di-GMP modifies chemotactic signal transduction in this agriculturally important species, we developed agent-based computational models and novel microfluidic device designs and methods.