Successive passaging of a plant-associated microbiome reveals robust habitat and host genotype-dependent selection

Phyllosphere microbiota: Community dynamics and its interaction with plant hosts

Plants are colonized by various microorganisms in natural environments. While many studies have demonstrated key roles of the rhizosphere microbiota in regulating biological processes such as nutrient acquisition and resistance against abiotic and biotic challenges, less is known about the role of the phyllosphere microbiota and how it is established and maintained. This review provides an update on current understanding of phyllosphere community assembly and the mechanisms by which plants and microbes establish the phyllosphere microbiota for plant health.

Shaping the leaf microbiota: plant-microbe-microbe interactions

The aerial portion of a plant, namely the leaf, is inhabited by pathogenic and non-pathogenic microbes. The leaf's physical and chemical properties, combined with fluctuating and often challenging environmental factors, create surfaces that require a high degree of adaptation for microbial colonization. As a consequence, specific interactive processes have evolved to establish a plant leaf niche. Little is known about the impact of the host immune system on phyllosphere colonization by non-pathogenic microbes. These organisms can trigger plant basal defenses and benefit the host by priming for enhanced resistance to pathogens. In most disease resistance responses, microbial signals are recognized by extra- or intracellular receptors. The interactions tend to be species specific and it is unclear how they shape leaf microbial communities. In natural habitats, microbe-microbe interactions are also important for shaping leaf communities. To protect resources, plant colonizers have developed direct antagonistic or host manipulation strategies to fight competitors. Phyllosphere-colonizing microbes respond to abiotic and biotic fluctuations and are therefore an important resource for adaptive and protective traits. Understanding the complex regulatory host-microbe-microbe networks is needed to transfer current knowledge to biotechnological applications such as plant-protective probiotics.

Microbe to Microbiome: A Paradigm Shift in the Application of Microorganisms for Sustainable Agriculture

Light, water and healthy soil are three essential natural resources required for agricultural productivity. Industrialization of agriculture has resulted in intensification of cropping practices using enormous amounts of chemical pesticides and fertilizers that damage these natural resources. Therefore, there is a need to embrace agriculture practices that do not depend on greater use of fertilizers and water to meet the growing demand of global food requirements. Plants and soil harbor millions of microorganisms, which collectively form a microbial community known as the microbiome. An effective microbiome can offer benefits to its host, including plant growth promotion, nutrient use efficiency, and control of pests and phytopathogens. Therefore, there is an immediate need to bring functional potential of plant-associated microbiome and its innovation into crop production. In addition to that, new scientific methodologies that can track the nutrient flux through the plant, its resident microbiome and surrounding soil, will offer new opportunities for the design of more efficient microbial consortia design. It is now increasingly acknowledged that the diversity of a microbial inoculum is as important as its plant growth promoting ability. Not surprisingly, outcomes from such plant and soil microbiome studies have resulted in a paradigm shift away from single, specific soil microbes to a more holistic microbiome approach for enhancing crop productivity and the restoration of soil health. Herein, we have reviewed this paradigm shift and discussed various aspects of benign microbiome-based approaches for sustainable agriculture.

Plant Genetic Networks Shaping Phyllosphere Microbial Community

Phyllosphere microbial communities inhabit the aerial plant parts, such as leaves and flowers, where they form complex molecular interactions with the host plant. Contrary to the relatively well-studied rhizosphere microbiome, scientists are just starting to understand, and potentially utilize, the phyllosphere microbiome. In this article, we summarize the recent studies that have provided novel insights into the mechanism of the host genotype shaping the phyllosphere microbiome and the possibility to select a stable and well-adapted microbiome. We also discuss the most pressing gaps in our knowledge and identify the most promising research directions and tools for understanding the assembly and function of phyllosphere microbiomes - this understanding is necessary if we are to harness phyllosphere microbiomes for improving plant growth and health in managed systems.

Strategies to revise agrosystems and breeding to control Fusarium wilt of banana

The recent emergence of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 (Foc TR4), the deadly strain that causes Fusarium wilt of banana, has put the banana production chain for export under threat. Here, we propose research priorities and complementary strategies and challenges for effective and efficient mitigation management of Fusarium wilt. Our strategies include diversifying the agrosystems to increase crop resilience, as well as using precision breeding approaches to rapidly assess and introduce disease-resistance genes to develop stable and complete Foc resistance in commercial banana cultivars.

The study of host-microbiome (co)evolution across levels of selection

Microorganismal diversity can be explained in large part by selection imposed from both the abiotic and biotic environments, including-in the case of host-associated microbiomes-interactions with eukaryotes. As such, the diversity of host-associated microbiomes can be usefully studied across a variety of scales: within a single host over time, among host genotypes within a population, between populations and among host species. A plethora of recent studies across these scales and across diverse systems are: (i) exemplifying the importance of the host genetics in shaping microbiome composition; (ii) uncovering the role of the microbiome in shaping key host phenotypes; and (iii) highlighting the dynamic nature of the microbiome. They have also raised a critical question: do these complex associations fit within our existing understanding of evolution and coevolution, or do these often intimate and seemingly cross-generational interactions follow novel evolutionary rules from those previously identified? Herein, we describe the known importance of (co)evolution in host-microbiome systems, placing the existing data within extant frameworks that have been developed over decades of study, and ask whether there are unique properties of host-microbiome systems that require a paradigm shift. By examining when and how selection can act on the host and its microbiome as a unit (termed, the holobiont), we find that the existing conceptual framework, which focuses on individuals, as well as interactions among individuals and groups, is generally well suited for understanding (co)evolutionary change in these intimate assemblages. This article is part of the theme issue 'The role of the microbiome in host evolution'.

Soil origin and plant genotype structure distinct microbiome compartments in the model legume Medicago truncatula

BACKGROUND

Understanding the genetic and environmental factors that structure plant microbiomes is necessary for leveraging these interactions to address critical needs in agriculture, conservation, and sustainability. Legumes, which form root nodule symbioses with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, have served as model plants for understanding the genetics and evolution of beneficial plant-microbe interactions for decades, and thus have added value as models of plant-microbiome interactions. Here we use a common garden experiment with 16S rRNA gene amplicon and shotgun metagenomic sequencing to study the drivers of microbiome diversity and composition in three genotypes of the model legume Medicago truncatula grown in two native soil communities.

RESULTS

Bacterial diversity decreased between external (rhizosphere) and internal plant compartments (root endosphere, nodule endosphere, and leaf endosphere). Community composition was shaped by strong compartment × soil origin and compartment × plant genotype interactions, driven by significant soil origin effects in the rhizosphere and significant plant genotype effects in the root endosphere. Nevertheless, all compartments were dominated by Ensifer, the genus of rhizobia that forms root nodule symbiosis with M. truncatula, and additional shotgun metagenomic sequencing suggests that the nodulating Ensifer were not genetically distinguishable from those elsewhere in the plant. We also identify a handful of OTUs that are common in nodule tissues, which are likely colonized from the root endosphere.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results demonstrate strong host filtering effects, with rhizospheres driven by soil origin and internal plant compartments driven by host genetics, and identify several key nodule-inhabiting taxa that coexist with rhizobia in the native range. Our results set the stage for future functional genetic experiments aimed at expanding our pairwise understanding of legume-rhizobium symbiosis toward a more mechanistic understanding of plant microbiomes. Video Abstract.

Functional gene categories differentiate maize leaf drought-related microbial epiphytic communities

The phyllosphere epiphytic microbiome is composed of microorganisms that colonize the external aerial portions of plants. Relationships of plant responses to specific microorganisms–both pathogenic and beneficial–have been examined, but the phyllosphere microbiome functional and metabolic profile responses are not well described. Changing crop growth conditions, such as increased drought, can have profound impacts on crop productivity. Also, epiphytic microbial communities provide a new target for crop yield optimization. We compared Zea mays leaf microbiomes collected under drought and well-watered conditions by examining functional gene annotation patterns across three physically disparate locations each with and without drought treatment, through the application of short read metagenomic sequencing. Drought samples exhibited different functional sequence compositions at each of the three field sites. Maize phyllosphere functional profiles revealed a wide variety of metabolic and regulatory processes that differed in drought and normal water conditions and provide key baseline information for future selective breeding.

Symbiosis and stress: how plant microbiomes affect host evolution

Existing paradigms for plant microevolution rarely acknowledge the potential impacts of diverse microbiomes on evolutionary processes. Many plant-associated microorganisms benefit the host via access to resources, protection from pathogens, or amelioration of abiotic stress. In doing so, they alter the plant's perception of the environment, potentially reducing the strength of selection acting on plant stress tolerance or defence traits or altering the traits that are the target of selection. We posit that the microbiome can affect plant microevolution via (1) manipulation of plant phenotypes in ways that increase plant fitness under stress and (2) direct microbial responses to the environment that benefit the plant. Both mechanisms might favour plant genotypes that attract or stimulate growth of the most responsive microbial populations or communities. We provide support for these scenarios using infectious disease and quantitative genetics models. Finally, we discuss how beneficial plant-microbiome associations can evolve if traditional mechanisms maintaining cooperation in pairwise symbioses, namely partner fidelity, partner choice and fitness alignment, also apply to the interactions between plants and diverse foliar and soil microbiomes. To understand the role of the plant microbiome in host evolution will require a broad ecological understanding of plant-microbe interactions across both space and time. This article is part of the theme issue 'The role of the microbiome in host evolution'.

Skirmish or war: the emergence of agricultural plant pathogens

Understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes underlying the emergence of infectious disease is critically important in guiding prevention, management and breeding strategies. Novel pathogen lineages may arise within agricultural environments, wild hosts or from non-host associated disease reservoirs. Although the source of most disease outbreaks remains unknown, environmental and zoonotic origins are frequently identified in mammalian pathosystems and expanded sampling of plant pathosystems reveals important links with wild populations. This review describes key ecological and evolutionary processes underlying disease emergence, with particular emphasis on shifts from wild reservoirs to cultivated hosts and genetic mechanisms driving host adaption subsequent to emergence.

Host Genotype and Colonist Arrival Order Jointly Govern Plant Microbiome Composition and Function

The composition of host-associated microbiomes can have important consequences for host health and fitness [1-3]. Yet we still lack understanding of many fundamental processes that determine microbiome composition [4, 5]. There is mounting evidence that historical contingency during microbiome assembly may overshadow more deterministic processes, such as the selective filters imposed by host traits [6-8]. More specifically, species arrival order has been frequently shown to affect microbiome composition [9-12], a phenomenon known as priority effects [13-15]. However, it is less clear whether priority effects during microbiome assembly are consequential for the host [16] or whether intraspecific variation in host traits can alter the trajectory of microbiome assembly under priority effects. In a greenhouse inoculation experiment using the black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) foliar microbiome, we manipulated host genotype and the colonization order of common foliar fungi. We quantified microbiome assembly outcomes using fungal marker gene sequencing and measured susceptibility of the colonized host to a leaf rust pathogen, Melampsora × columbiana. We found that the effect of species arrival order on microbiome composition, and subsequent disease susceptibility, depended on the host genotype. Additionally, we found that microbiome assembly history can affect host disease susceptibility independent of microbiome composition at the time of pathogen exposure, suggesting that the interactive effects of species arrival order and host genotype can decouple community composition and function. Overall, these results highlight the importance of a key process underlying stochasticity in microbiome assembly while also revealing which hosts are most likely to experience these effects.

The Plant Microbiome: From Ecology to Reductionism and Beyond

Methodological advances over the past two decades have propelled plant microbiome research, allowing the field to comprehensively test ideas proposed over a century ago and generate many new hypotheses. Studying the distribution of microbial taxa and genes across plant habitats has revealed the importance of various ecological and evolutionary forces shaping plant microbiota. In particular, selection imposed by plant habitats strongly shapes the diversity and composition of microbiota and leads to microbial adaptation associated with navigating the plant immune system and utilizing plant-derived resources. Reductionist approaches have demonstrated that the interaction between plant immunity and the plant microbiome is, in fact, bidirectional and that plants, microbiota, and the environment shape a complex chemical dialogue that collectively orchestrates the plantmicrobiome. The next stage in plant microbiome research will require the integration of ecological and reductionist approaches to establish a general understanding of the assembly and function in both natural and managed environments.