Rhizobia are able to fix nitrogen through symbiotic interactions with legumes (Biological Nitrogen Fixation). This does not only promote plant growth and better yields but also enables certain legumes to grow in environments where other plants would struggle to survive and thrive.

Amongst the rhizobia, members of the genus Paraburkholderia (formerly known as Burkholderia) are often associated with poor nutrient soils that are highly acidic and arid.

These bacteria are often isolated in association with indigenous South African legumes and hold great agricultural potential as alternative inoculants for food and forage legumes.

The overall objective of my PhD study is to investigate the biology and evolution of “indigenous” Paraburkholderia species in order to develop a genomics-based framework to predict important functions required for their successful implementation under different agricultural settings.

This will be done by utilizing various genome based resources (genome sequences for individual isolates as well as representative bins from metagenome studies) to investigate the distribution and movement of important functional genes within and across species and to predict and experimentally verify how certain isolates would survive and compete when utilized as agricultural inoculants.