A Hypothetical Bottleneck in the Plant Microbiome.

Front Microbiol

Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States.

Published: July 2018

AI Article Synopsis

  • The study explores how endophytic microbes in individual seeds may limit the diversity of the plant microbiome, suggesting a "bottleneck" effect at the seed level.
  • Experiments showed that each surface-sterilized seed typically hosts either one culturable bacterial or fungal endophyte, or none at all, reinforcing the idea of exclusionary interactions among these microbes.
  • The researchers propose that if future high-throughput sequencing confirms these bottlenecks, it would warrant further investigation into the Primary Symbiont Hypothesis, which posits that the dominant endophytes can significantly influence seedling development based on their identity.

Article Abstract

The plant microbiome may be bottlenecked at the level of endophytes of individual seeds. Strong defense of developing seeds is predicted by optimal defense theory, and we have experimentally demonstrated exclusionary interactions among endophytic microbes infecting individual seeds of . Having found a single, PDA-culturable microbe per seed or none in an exploratory study with , we completed a more extensive survey of an additional 98 plant species representing 39 families. We again found that individual, surface-sterilized seeds of all species hosted only one PDA-culturable bacterial or fungal endophyte per seed, or none. PDA-unculturables were not determined but we expect them to also be bottlenecked in individual seeds, as they too should be governed by exclusionary interactions. If the bottleneck were confirmed with high-throughput sequencing of individual seeds then it would make sense to further investigate the Primary Symbiont Hypothesis (PSH). This includes the prediction that primary symbionts (i.e., the winners of the exclusionary battles among seed endophytes) have strong effects on seedlings depending on symbiont identity.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6080073PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01645DOI Listing

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