Endophytic Communities of Transgenic Poplar Were Determined by the Environment and Niche Rather Than by Transgenic Events

Abstract

Microbial communities associated with plants represent key determinants of plant health, survival, and growth. However, a good understanding of the structural composition of the bacterial and fungal microbiome present in different plant tissues and growing environments, especially in transgenic woody plants, is required. In the present study, we hypothesized that environmental conditions, ecological niches, and transgenic events could influence the community structure of plant-associated microorganisms (bacterial and fungal endophytes). We sampled the root and stem endospheres of field-grown transgenic and non-transgenic poplar trees ( Populus alba × P. berolinensis ) and applied 16S rRNA and internal transcribed spacer amplicon Illumina MiSeq sequencing to determine the bacterial and fungal communities associated with the different plant habitats and tissues. We found that actinobacteria, proteobacteria, bacteroidetes, and firmicutes were the dominant endophytic bacteria, and the fungal community was dominated by dothideomycetes, agaricomycetes, leotiomycetes, and sordariomycetes. In conclusion, transgenic events did not affect the endophytic bacterial and fungal diversity of poplar trees. The bacterial and fungal community structure depends on the pH and the soil organic matter content. Each plant tissue represents a unique ecological niche for the microbial communities. Finally, we identified the indicator operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and core microbiome associated with the different plant tissues of Populus and different environmental conditions. The results provide a basis for further study of host-microbial interactions with the identified abundant OTUs of Populus .

The Macleaya cordata Symbiont: Revealing the Effects of Plant Niches and Alkaloids on the Bacterial Community

“…The highest evenness of bacterial communities was found in the stem among plant parts. It should be noticed that there was no significant difference in bacterial diversity between stems and roots, while many studies have determined that bacterial diversity was highest in roots (Santana et al, 2016;Wang et al, 2019). The variation of endophytic bacterial communities in different compartments was primarily driven by tissue-specific filtering mechanisms within the host (Bonito et al, 2014;Chao et al, 2020).…”

Effects of Hedysarum leguminous plants on soil bacterial communities in the Mu Us Desert, northwest China

“…Other studies have also pointed out that variations of the relative abundances of Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes in soil microbial communities are mainly driven by soil pH, which further affect the overall structural variability of bacterial communities (Lauber et al, 2019). According to the findings of a recent study that investigated the bacterial communities in poplar roots, pH has a significant influence on the genotypes of both bacterial and fungal communities, as well as their colonization and distribution in plant roots and stems (Wang et al., 2019). As a result, microbes in root‐zone soil and intershrub bulk soil are mainly influenced by pH and NH 4 + ‐N.…”

Diversity and Structural Variability of Bacterial Microbial Communities in Rhizocompartments of Desert Leguminous Plants

“…This 91 phenomenon suggests that soil type is an important driver of microbial community composition in the 92 rhizosphere (33, 34). Findings from previous studies have also indicated that core bacterial 93 microbiomes closely associated with host plants dominate the degree of variability of the entire 94 bacterial community across different niches (23, 35). As far as rhizocompartments are concerned as 95 special micro-ecosystems, the relative differential variations of bacterial communities driven by 96 various soil factors in roots, rhizosphere soil, and non-rhizosphere soil can be used to reflect the 97 intensity of the "rhizosphere effect", and characterize the degree of interactions between plants and 98 soil.…”