Linking intraspecific variation in plant chemical defence with arthropod and soil bacterial community structure and N allocation

Abstract

Aims We tested whether chemical content of individual Tansy plants influences aboveground arthropod and belowground soil microbial community composition. Methods We use Tansy chemical defence composition as focus for our analysis, given that changes in chemical defence are a dominant mechanism expected to modify aboveground and belowground community composition and nutrient cycling. Detailed assessment of arthropod food webs were made on tansy chemotypes. Next generation soil DNA analyses were used to assess soil bacterial community. Results Tansy plants defended by Camphor and Borneol had higher total soil bacterial diversity than control plants (soils under non-Tansy plants) and Tansy chemotypes containing high concentrations of Thujon. Furthermore, the frequency of bacterial genera with a significant role in litter mineralization processes decreased with time in soil associated with Camphor and Borneol chemotypes, indicative of complete microbial decomposition and mineralization of plant material. No such changes occurred in soils associated with Thujon chemotypes. Thujon plants had fewer aphids, ladybirds, spiders, and Orius sp. than other chemotypes. Conclusions Our experiments revealed that Thujon chemotypes had different associated aboveground arthropod and belowground soil microbial communities than Camphor or Borneol chemotypes. The common qualitative response between aboveground and belowground communities to Tansy plant defense is consistent with our hypothesis and extensive literature on plant defense and aboveground and belowground feedbacks.

Gut Microbiome Composition is Associated with Age and Memory Performance in Pet Dogs

“…DNA sequencing was performed on an Illumina MiSeq platform using MiSeq standard v2 chemistry as a service provided by the Genomics Core Facility RTSF, Michigan State University, East Lansing MI, USA. Methodological details and instructions for the bioinformatic analysis are given in [28]. Briefly, sequences were processed using the Mothur software [29] reads were quality-filtered, chimeras (identified by the program described in [30]), and singletons were removed from the dataset.…”

Insight into the hidden bacterial diversity of Lake Balaton, Hungary

“…DNA sequencing was performed on an Illumina MiSeq platform using MiSeq standard v2 chemistry by the Genomics Core Facility RTSF, Michigan State University, USA. Sequencing and the description of bioinformatic analysis were done according to Benedek et al (2019). OTUs were determined at the species-level delineation based on Tindall et al (2010).…”

Effectiveness of the Entomopathogenic Fungal Species Metarhizium anisopliae Strain NCAIM 362 Treatments against Soil Inhabiting Melolontha melolontha Larvae in Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas L.)

“…The frequency of bacterial genera were similar for both treatment and control. Most bacterial taxons identified as dominant (Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Patescibacteria, Chloroflexi), are known to have a significant role in litter biodegradation and mineralization processes [ 31 ]. While no high variation in bacterial community were detected between control and treatment, means that no soil inhabiting microorganisms with inhibitory effect on M. flavoviride were detected.…”

“…The soil bacterial community analysis was performed based on amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene as in our previous work [ 31 ]. Briefly, total genomic DNA was extracted using the DNeasy PowerSoil Kit (Qiagen), a part of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified with primers containing the Bacteria-specific sequences Bakt_341F (5′-CCTACGGGNGGCWGCAG-3′; [ 32 ]) and Bakt_805NR (5′-GACTACNVGGGTATCTAATCC-3′; [ 33 ]), and DNA sequencing was performed on an Illumina MiSeq platform using MiSeq standard v2 chemistry as a service provided by the Genomics Core Facility RTSF, Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI, USA).…”

“…Statistical analyses of soil bacterial communities were described in Benedek et al [ 31 ], the differences were that the resulting sequence reads were processed using the mothur v1.41 software ([ 35 ]; based on the MiSeq standard operating procedure, downloaded on 03/04/2020) and the removal of chimeric sequences was performed using VSEARCH [ 36 ]. OTUs (operational taxonomic units) were defined at a 97% nucleotide sequence similarity level.…”