The diversity of soil microbes results in extensive interspecies interactions. These communities play a major role in the ecosystem’s health and agricultural production. Bacillus subtilis, a diverse Gram-positive bacterial species found in the upper soil and plant rhizosphere, has been observed to interact with the soil fungus Setophoma terrestris, a major plant pathogen that affects economically important crops. In subtropical and tropical regions, S. terrestris has caused pink root disease in onions. Interestingly, the interactions between S. terrestris and B. subtilis ALBA01 resulted in metabolites associated with antifungal activity, such as surfactin and plipastatin. Using LC-MS and GC-MS based metabolomics, we can further look into the production of antifungal compounds whose nature remains unexplained. This project is a collaboration with Dr. Andrea Albarracin Orio at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba.

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