Tiny lodgers, big goals – Insights into the interplay between plants, microbes and sustainability

Exhibition by the TRR356 PlantMicrobe research network in cooperation with the Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg

Plants are never alone: a multitude of microscopic cohabitants live on and within them. Some promote growth and health, whilst others can cause disease. This dynamic coexistence with microbes shapes how plants cope with environmental stress, thereby also influencing agricultural yields and entire ecosystems.

The exhibition “Tiny lodgers, big goals” brings these hidden relationships to light and shows how closely they are linked to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Through vivid examples, it demonstrates how microorganisms can help make plants more resilient, reduce the need for fertilisers and conserve natural resources such as soil and water. In doing so, they can make an important contribution to sustainable agriculture, the protection of biodiversity and adaptation to climate change.

The exhibition is funded by the LMU Sustainability Fund.

About TRR356 PlantMicrobe

The Transregio 356 ‘Genetic diversity shaping biotic interactions of plants (PlantMicrobe)’ is a DFG-funded network for research into interactions between plants and microorganisms. Under the project-coordination of the LMU Munich, the Technical University of Munich, the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen and the University of Ulm, individual research groups from the Helmholtz Centre Munich, the Max Planck Institutes for Biology and for Molecular Plant Physiology and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry in Halle are also involved in the research network.

Admission

€ 5,50 | discount € 4
People under 18, students and pupils: free admission
More information: Opening hours & tickets

Location

Grüner Saal (house 7 of the greenhouses)
Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg
Menzinger Str. 65
80638 Munich

Photo: Hyphae of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (Rhizophagus irregularis) extend through the intercellular space of the root tissue of a Japanese horn clover (Lotus japonicus). Microphotograph: Isabella Gantner, LMU Biozentrum, 2025