Soil bacteria are engineered to colonize the root of corn and form 3-member communities marked by green, orage, magenta-colored cells. 

We have developed synthetic differentiation circuits that program microbial cells to differentiate into multi-member communities after colonizing a region of interest.

Here, we are exploring if soil microbes can traverse through the complex soil environment, colonize the root of corn, and differentiate into multi-member community directly on the root after detecting a synthetic differentiation signal. 

We anticipate our technology to enable engineering microbes to form multi-member communities on the root of crop plants, and help improve delivery of nutrients, hormones, and anti-pathogen biomolecules.