Photosynthate distribution in the maize root system affects spatial patterns in the maize rhizosphere microbiota

In the first study, we analyzed the distribution of recently fixed photosynthates in the maize root system non-invasively with high spatiotemporal resolution by 11CO2 based positron emission tomography; thereby using image-guided sampling to assess the effect of photosynthate patterns on the rhizosphere bacterial, fungal and protist communities. In the second study, this approach was complemented by 13CO2-labeling to link root-internal carbon allocation to rhizodeposition and identify microbial photosynthate consumers by DNA-stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP).