Speaker
Description
Seeds host highly diverse microbial communities, which colonize the surface but also the internal tissues of the seeds (i.e., seed epiphytes and endophytes). For decades, seed endophytes have gone unnoticed, but recent studies indicate that these microorganisms can have a major influence on the development and health of seedlings. Most of these endophytes seem to be plant-beneficial bacteria and fungi supporting nutrient allocation and offering protection from pathogens. The factors that shape the seedling microbiome, such as drivers of global change, are still under debate. Therefore, we asked how the composition and diversity of the seed microbiome differ among plant species and functional groups; how the seed microbiome determines which microorganisms colonize the roots and leaves of the seedlings, both under aseptic conditions in sterilized media and when grown in “living” soil; and how these processes are altered by global change drivers, such as drought.
To answer this, we performed next-generation sequencing on seeds and seedlings grown in sterile tubes on different media to quantify the microbiome of two grassland species (Geranium pusillum and Lolium perenne) originated from the DroughtNet site in Jena.
We found that the seed microbiome is significantly different from the seedling microbiome. Nevertheless, our results show that the seed microbiome is an important source for the seedling microbiome. Furthermore, we found that drought has a strong influence on these processes and shifts the community composition (already in the seed).This project was funded by the iDiv Flexpool fund, covering all research areas of iDiv. By using molecular methods to study the microbiome of seeds and seedlings (molecular diversity and complexity), we were able to show that the microbiome changes when exposed to drought (biodiversity change). The topic is very important as we do not yet know what effects these changes in the microbiome caused by global change will have on ecosystem functioning and thus on human life (society) on earth.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
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