Pivotal roles of phyllosphere microorganisms at the interface between plant functioning and atmospheric trace gas dynamics

Abstract

The phyllosphere, which lato sensu consists of the aerial parts of plants, and therefore primarily, of the set of photosynthetic leaves, is one of the most prevalent microbial habitats on earth. Phyllosphere microbiota are related to original and specific processes at the interface between plants, microorganisms and the atmosphere. Recent –omics studies have opened fascinating opportunities for characterizing the spatio-temporal structure of phyllosphere microbial communities in relation with structural, functional, and ecological properties of host plants, and with physico-chemical properties of the environment, such as climate dynamics and trace gas composition of the surrounding atmosphere. This review will analyze recent advances, especially those resulting from environmental genomics, and how this novel knowledge has revealed the extent of the ecosystemic impact of the phyllosphere at the interface between plants and atmosphere.Highlights• The phyllosphere is one of the most prevalent microbial habitats on earth.• Phyllosphere microbiota colonize extreme, stressful, and changing environments.• Plants, phyllosphere microbiota and the atmosphere present a dynamic continuum.• Phyllosphere microbiota interact with the dynamics of volatile organic compounds and atmospheric trace gasses.

Herbicide-related signaling in plants reveals novel insights for herbicide use strategies, environmental risk assessment and global change assessment challenges

“…Signaling effects of herbicides or their derivatives can affect biochemical traits (carbon and nitrogen metabolites, sulfur metabolites, stress defence metabolites, secondary metabolites) and growth traits (root growth rate, lateral root formation, leaf elongation) that can have considerable impact on plant-rhizosphere-soil interactions (Philippot and Hallin, 2011), plant-phyllosphere-atmosphere interactions (Bringel and Couée, 2015) or plant-herbivory interactions (Hervé et al, 2014;Savary-Auzeloux et al, 2003). These effects can occur on plant species of outstanding ecosystemic importance, such as perennial ryegrass (Serra et al, 2015a), a major component of grazed pastures and grasslands that cover over 40% of Earth's land surface area (Barbehenn et al, 2004), or rice (Zhou et al, 2015), with a global harvested area of 14% of Earth's arable land (Philippot and Hallin, 2011).…”

Isolation of potential bacterial pathogens from the phylloplane of some selected medicinal plants

“…This might be attributed to the fact that C. fistula and P. guajavum have rough phylloplanes that enabled easy attachment of large number of microorganisms on the surfaces. The work of [14] have suggested many factors that influence the abundance and diversity of phylosphere microbes in which plant type was a major determinant. However, despite the reduction in bacterial load by seasonal influence (lower bacteria in summer than in winter [4]) and washing with warm water, the bacterial count recorded was still of great health concern.…”

Shared and unique features of bacterial communities in native forest and vineyard phyllosphere

“…The aboveground parts of plants, so‐called phyllosphere, not only are among one of the most prevalent bacterial habitats on Earth, but also support diverse bacterial communities (Bringel & Couée, ; Yang, Crowley, Borneman, & Keen, ). Phyllosphere microorganisms provide specific ecosystem services and potentially mediate plant biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships (Kembel et al, ; Laforest‐Lapointe, Paquette, Messier, & Kembel, ; Vacher et al, ).…”