Interactions between root hairs and the soil microbial community affecting the growth of maize seedlings

We investigated root hairs as a phenotypic trait influencing exudate composition and the rhizosphere microbial community in maize seedlings. This greenhouse pot experiment used Zea mays B73 wild type (wt) and its root hairless mutant, Zea mays B73-rth3, grown in live or autoclaved communities which altered the initial prairie soil microbial community, to observe how the interaction of root hairs and associating rhizosphere microbes (bacteria and archaea) affected the growth rates of the maize seedlings in each pot.