MIRRI-ERIC and MICROBES-4-CLIMATE: advancing culturomics and synthetic communities for climate action

This presentation was delivered by Ana Portugal Melo, Executive Director of MIRRI-ERIC, at the 2025 Food System Microbiomes Conference, in Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Abstract

MIRRI-ERIC, the Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure, is a pan-European ERIC that coordinates microbial Biological Resource Centres and services. It provides access to curated microorganisms, data, and expertise, supporting research, innovation, and European priorities for sustainable food systems and climate action.

MICROBES-4-CLIMATE (M4C), coordinated by MIRRI-ERIC, is a Horizon Europe project that brings together leading Research Infrastructures to study soil and plant microbiomes under climate stress. It develops interoperable services, experimental approaches, and data workflows to understand microbial responses to drought, heat, and other factors, strengthening resilience in agroecosystems and related environments.

Within M4C, one goal is the establishment and validation of synthetic microbial communities (SMCs). It standardises sampling, isolation, and preservation, identifies new microbial isolates, and designs SMCs with key ecosystem functions that protect plants under stress. These resources and workflows are preserved in partner collections, ensuring long-term availability for research and innovation.

In parallel, culturomics provides a complementary approach to broaden the range of microbial strains available for such efforts. By diversifying cultivation conditions and applying high-throughput MALDI-TOF MS dereplication and genome-based identification, it uncovers microbial diversity often missed by conventional approaches. Such strains can enhance soil and plant health, support climate-resilient farming, and accelerate microbiome-based innovation for climate change mitigation.

Together, these activities demonstrate how MIRRI-ERIC and its partners advance microbiome research to foster sustainable systems under climate change.