Distinguishing nutrient‐dependent plant driven bacterial colonization patterns in alfalfa. Issue 1 (15th December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Moccia, Katherine; Willems, Andrew; Papoulis, Spiridon; Flores, Alicia; Forister, Matthew L.; Fordyce, James A.; Lebeis, Sarah L.
• Is Part Of: Environmental microbiology reports. Volume 12:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 70
• Page End: 77
• Publication Date: 2019-12-15
• Subjects: Microbial ecology -- Periodicals; Environmental Microbiology -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 579.17
• DOI: 10.1111/1758-2229.12815
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1758-2229

Abstract

Summary: To understand factors that influence the assembly of microbial communities, we inoculated Medicago sativa with a series of nested bacterial synthetic communities and grew plants in distinct nitrogen concentrations. Two isolates in our eight‐member synthetic community, Williamsia sp. R60 and Pantoea sp. R4, consistently dominate community structure across nitrogen regimes. While Pantoea sp. R4 consistently colonizes plants to a higher degree compared to the other six organisms across each community and each nutrient level, Williamsia sp. R60 exhibits nutrient specific colonization differences. Williamsia sp. R60 is more abundant in plants grown at higher nitrogen concentrations, but exhibits the opposite trend when no plant is present, indicating plant‐driven influence over colonization. Our research discovered unique, repeatable colonization phenotypes for individual microbes during plant microbiome assembly, and identified alterations caused by the host plant, microbes, and available nutrients.