Walk by sagebrush. Smell that? It’s a chemical soup the plant produces, intended to kill or dissuade the growth of microbes and fungi. But some manage to live on sagebrush anyway.
Leonora Bittleston, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, is studying why. She’s asking how these microorganisms may benefit sagebrush in hopes of saving the iconic plant and the complex Western ecosystem that depends on it.” Read the entire article