The microbial ecology of flowers: an emerging frontier in phyllosphere research

Aleklett, Kristin; Hart, Miranda; Shade, Ashley

doi:10.1139/cjb-2013-0166

Cited by 183 publications

(189 citation statements)

References 127 publications

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“…We provide evidence that floral organs act as different environmental habitats contributing to the assembly of flower microbiomes, despite the small size of M. guttatus flowers, and the close contact between stamens and styles with the petals. These results confirm predictions based on knowledge of chemical and morphological differences of these floral parts (Aleklett et al, ; Junker & Keller, ). Specifically, (a) floral organ explains more of the variation in community assembly than seep or pollination treatment, (b) OTUs within a particular flower organ are more phylogenetically clustered than expected by random, and (c) most differences in community composition do not correlate with distance at the scale of this study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Floral organs act as environmental filters and interact with pollinators to structure the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus) floral microbiome

Gómez

Ashman

2019

Molecular Ecology

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Assembly of microbial communities is the result of neutral and selective processes. However, the relative importance of these processes is still debated. Microbial communities of flowers, in particular, have gained recent attention because of their potential impact to plant fitness and plant‐pollinator interactions. However, the role of selection and dispersal in the assembly of these communities remains poorly understood. Here, we evaluated the role of pollinator‐mediated dispersal on the contribution of neutral and selective processes in the assembly of floral microbiomes of the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus). We sampled floral organs from flowers in the presence and absence of pollinators within five different serpentine seeps in CA and obtained 16S amplicon data on the epiphytic bacterial communities. Consistent with strong microenvironment selection within flowers we observed significant differences in community composition across floral organs and only a small effect of geographic distance. Pollinator exposure affected the contribution of environmental selection and depended on the rate and intimacy of interactions with flower visitors. This study provides evidence of the importance of dispersal and within‐flower heterogeneity in shaping epiphytic bacterial communities of flowers, and highlights the complex interplay between pollinator behaviour, environmental selection and additional abiotic factors in shaping the epiphytic bacterial communities of flowers.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Floral organs act as environmental filters and interact with pollinators to structure the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus) floral microbiome

Gómez

Ashman

2019

Molecular Ecology

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“…The relative ease of introducing bacteria into plant seed by applying them on flowers of parent plants indicates that at least a part of the seed microbiome may derive from flower or pollen colonizing microorganisms (Aleklett et al, 2014; Ushio et al, 2015) and the air or insects visiting the plant during flowering might be other important source for seed endophytes. This aspect has not yet been studied in detail.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Approach to Modify Plant Microbiomes and Traits by Introducing Beneficial Bacteria at Flowering into Progeny Seeds

et al. 2017

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The microbial component of healthy seeds – the seed microbiome – appears to be inherited between plant generations and can dynamically influence germination, plant performance, and survival. As such, methods to optimize the seed microbiomes of major crops could have far-reaching implications for plant breeding and crop improvement to enhance agricultural food, feed, and fiber production. Here, we describe a new approach to modulate seed microbiomes of elite crop seed embryos and concomitantly design the traits to be mediated by seed microbiomes. Specifically, we discovered that by introducing the endophyte Paraburkholderia phytofirmans PsJN to the flowers of parent plants we could drive its inclusion in progeny seed microbiomes, thereby inducing vertical inheritance to the offspring generation. We demonstrated the introduction of PsJN to seeds of monocot and dicot plant species and the consequential modifications to seed microbiome composition and growth traits in wheat, illustrating the potential role of novel seed-based microbiomes in determining plant traits.

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“…In contrast, analyses of microbiota associated with other plant habitats such as the anthosphere [11], the carposphere [12][13][14][15], the seed habitat [16] and the spermosphere [17 ,18] have been relatively less studied. Nonetheless, these habitats are important for plant fitness since they are directly related to the production of offspring and then potentially associated to vertical transmission of the plant microbiota.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological patterns of seed microbiome diversity, transmission, and assembly

Shade

Martin

Barret

2017

Current Opinion in Microbiology

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344

280

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Seeds are involved in the transmission of microorganisms from one plant generation to another and consequently act as the initial inoculum for the plant microbiota. The purpose of this mini-review is to provide an overview of current knowledge on the diversity, structure and role of the seed microbiota. The relative importance of the mode of transmission (vertical vs horizontal) of the microbial entities composing the seed microbiota as well as the potential connections existing between seed and other plant habitats such as the anthosphere and the spermosphere is discussed. Finally the governing processes (niche vs neutral) involved in the assembly and the dynamics of the seed microbiota are examined.

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The microbial ecology of flowers: an emerging frontier in phyllosphere research

Cited by 183 publications

References 127 publications

Floral organs act as environmental filters and interact with pollinators to structure the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus) floral microbiome

Floral organs act as environmental filters and interact with pollinators to structure the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus) floral microbiome

A New Approach to Modify Plant Microbiomes and Traits by Introducing Beneficial Bacteria at Flowering into Progeny Seeds

Ecological patterns of seed microbiome diversity, transmission, and assembly

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