Clive Ronson

Biography

Professor Ronson's research interests are in the areas of the plant-microbe interactions involved in symbiotic nitrogen fixation, and the role of horizontal gene transfer in microbial evolution. The major research area in the lab focuses on genomic analysis of the bacterium Mesorhizobium loti that is the microsymbiont of the model legume Lotus japonicus. In this research, we collaborate with several overseas groups characterizing the plant’s contribution to the symbiosis using L. japonicus. In particular, we are one of two international partners of the Centre for Carbohydrate Recognition and Signalling, a Centre of Research Excellence headquartered in Aarhus, Denmark, and funded by the Danish National Research Foundation. Carbohydrate signals and extracellular polysaccharides play an important role in cell-to-cell communication processes between the host plant and rhizobial microsymbiont and a major aim of our work is to determine the mechanisms by which these signals are perceived.

Research Interest

Clive is a microbial geneticist with primary research interests in how microbes and plants recognise each other and develop a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis, and in microbial evolution by horizontal gene transfer and adaptive mutation. He is one of two international partners of the Centre for Carbohydrate Recognition and Signalling based in Denmark and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.