The primary research interest of Harro Bouwmeester is the role of plant hormones and other signalling molecules in the communication of plants with beneficial and harmful organisms, particularly in the rhizosphere. For example, his group studies the exudation by plants of strigolactones into the rhizosphere to signal host presence to symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and the abuse of this signalling relation by parasitic plants that use the same molecules for host detection. The fact that the strigolactones also have an endogenous signalling function as new class of plant hormones, regulating root and shoot architecture, makes this interaction even more intriguing. The intricate signaling role of the strigolactones has prompted Harro to also research other rhizosphere signaling relationships such as the induction of cyst nematode hatching by root exudates and the recruitment of the root microbiome by plants. Important aspects of his work on chemical communication are the use of different approaches, including the use of omics technologies, to unravel how these signalling molecules are biosynthesised and perceived, how their production is regulated, and how important they are for the interaction. To be able to do such studies his group uses a broad range of expertises, ranging from analytical chemistry, including metabolomics, for detection of signalling molecules, RNAseq and data integration, through molecular biology and biochemistry for the isolation of key genes to metabolic engineering to change signalling molecule production and bioassays to study the consequences of the altered signalling molecule production for the interaction.
Harro Bouwmeester is Chair of Plant Hormone Biology at the Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences (SILS) of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His primary research interest is the communication of plants, through signalling molecules, with other plants and organisms in their environment, particularly in the rhizosphere. For example, the exudation by plants of strigolactones to signal host presence to symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and the abuse of this signalling relation by parasitic plants that use the same molecules for host detection. He and others have shown that the strigolactones also have an endogenous signalling function as new class of plant hormones, regulating root and shoot architecture, making this interaction even more intriguing. The amazing versatility of the strigolactones has prompted him to formulate a paradigm – enemies of plants use signal molecules that are essential for the plant for host detection - that he is investigating to discover new plant hormones and/or essential signalling molecules, for example to find signalling molecules that plants use to recruit beneficial micro-organisms.
Important aspects of his work are how these signalling molecules are biosynthesised and perceived, how their production is regulated, and how essential these molecules are for the interaction. To be able to do such studies he has built up a group with broad expertise, ranging from analytical chemistry for detection of the signalling molecules, through molecular biology and biochemistry for the isolation of key-genes using state-of-the-art approaches such as the combination of transcriptomics and metabolomics, to metabolic engineering to change signalling molecule production and basic biology to study the consequences of the altered signalling molecule production for the interaction.
His work covers a broad range of disciplines and he collaborates with many scientists around the world, which often results in strong synergy and top publications. All this has resulted in an internationally recognised research group and has resulted in many (300) publications in international peer-reviewed journals and an international position and extensive network in the field of terpenoids, including the strigolactones. To his top achievements belong papers in Science, Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Communications, PNAS, Nature Biotechnology and reviews in Trends in Plant Science, Annual Review of Plant Biology, Annual Review of Phytopathology, Current Opinion in Plant Biology and Current Opinion in Biotechnology.
Professor Bouwmeester also collaborates with scientists in developing countries, particularly in the African continent, to apply his knowledge on parasitic plants to the control of the tremendous agricultural problem that the parasitic Striga spp. (witchweeds) pose in African agriculture.
At the end of 2005, he was awarded the prestigious Vici-grant of 1.2 M€ by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for his work on underground chemical communication of plants, in 2007 a professorship in The Physiology of Plant Communication, in 2011 the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI) Distinguished Visiting Scientist Stipend for a sabbatical visit to Davis, USA, in 2015 an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 M€ for work on rhizosphere communication in plants and in 2019 an NWO Gravitation grant of 20 M€ to head a consortium working on the plant-root microbiome interaction. In 2019 he was awarded membership of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). He is one of the lead PIs in a large Growth Fund application called Holomicrobiome for which recently funding was obtained.
He is a member of the Editorial boards of Molecular Plant, The Journal of Plant Interactions and Plant Signalling and Behavior. Prof. Bouwmeester reviews for >20 Journals such as Science, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Communications, New Phytologist, Plant Physiology, Journal of Experimental Botany, Frontiers in Plant Science, The Plant Journal, Phytochemistry, Molecular Systems Biology, Planta, Plant Pathology, The Plant Cell, Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, etc. He reviews for Granting agencies such as SSF, NSF, GIF, BBSRC, ANR, SNSF, FWF. He is a regular member of grant reviewing committees for the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
Prof. Bouwmeester was organiser of the Plant Microbiome Symposium 2024, June 2024, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; he was organiser of the 2019 World Congress on Parasitic Plants, June 2019, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; he was organiser of the 2018 Gordon conference on Plant volatiles, February 2018, Barga, Italy; he was organiser of the 1st International Congress on Strigolactones, March 2015, Wageningen, the Netherlands; he co-organised a COST workshop Data handling, interpretation and modelling in terpenoid and PNP biosynthesis, the Netherlands, February 2013; organised the International Terpnet meeting, May 2005, the Netherlands; was co-organiser of the Spring School Chemical Communication: from Gene to Ecosystem March 2005, the Netherlands; member of scientific committees for a number of workshops and international meetings.