email: swacker@fas.harvard.edu

I am interested in the association between tomato plants and the beneficial bacterium Bacillus subtilis. B. subtilis forms complex communities, called biofilms, on the roots of tomato plants and tomato root exudate has been shown to stimulate B. subtilis biofilms away from plant roots. The goal of my project is to identify and characterize the molecules and proteins that form the basis of communication between tomato and B. subtilis, with a focus on those that regulate biofilm formation. I am doing my post-doc jointly in the Kolter and Losick labs.