Plant survival depends on the ability of roots to sense and acquire nutrients in soils, which harbor a rich diversity of microbes. A subset of this microcosm interacts with plant roots and collectively forms root-associated microbial communities, termed the root microbiota. Under phosphorus-limiting conditions, some plants can engage in mutualistic interactions, for example with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Here, we describe how Arabidopsis thaliana, which lacks the genetic capacity for establishing the aforementioned symbiosis, interacts with soil-resident bacteria and fungi in soil from a long-term phosphorus fertilization trial. Long-term, contrasting fertilization regimes resulted in an ∼6-fold and ∼2.4-fold disparity in bioavailable and total phosphorous, respectively, which may explain differences in biomass of A. thaliana plants. Sequencing of marker genes enabled us to characterize bacterial and fungal communities present in the bulk soil, rhizosphere, and root compartments. Phosphorus had little effect on alpha- or beta-diversity indices, but more strongly influences bacterial and fungal community shifts in plant-associated compartments compared with bulk soil. The significant impact of soil P abundance could only be resolved at operational taxonomic unit level, and these subtle differences are more pronounced in the root compartment. We conclude that despite decades of different fertilization, both bacterial and fungal soil communities remained unexpectedly stable in soils tested, suggesting that the soil biota is resilient over time to nutrient supplementation. Conversely, low-abundance, root-associated microbes, which collectively represent 2 to 3% of the relative abundance of bacteria and fungi in the roots, exhibited a subtle, yet significant shift between the two soils. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .
Tel: +41 79 536 7546 12 13 14 2 The unprecedented challenge to feed the rapidly growing human population can only be 15 achieved with major changes in how we combine technology with agronomy 1 . Despite their 16 potential few beneficial microbes have truly been demonstrated to significantly increase 17 productivity of globally important crops in real farming conditions 2,3 . The way microbes are 18 employed has largely ignored the successes of crop breeding where naturally occurring 19 intraspecific variation of plants has been used to increase yields. Doing this with microbes 20 requires establishing a link between variation in the microbes and quantitative traits of crop 21 growth along with a clear demonstration that intraspecific microbial variation can potentially 22 lead to large differences in crop productivity in real farming conditions. Arbuscular mycorrhizal 23 fungi (AMF), form symbioses with globally important crops and show great potential to improve 24 crop yields 2 . Here we demonstrate the first link between patterns of genome-wide intraspecific 25 AMF variation and productivity of the globally important food crop cassava. Cassava, one of the 26 most important food security crops, feeds approximately 800 million people daily 4 . In 27 subsequent field trials, inoculation with genetically different isolates of the AMF Rhizophagus 28 irregularis altered cassava root productivity by up to 1.46-fold in conventional cultivation in 29 Colombia. In independent field trials in Colombia, Kenya and Tanzania, clonal sibling progeny 30 of homokaryon and dikaryon parental AMF enormously altered cassava root productivity by up 31 to 3 kg per plant and up to a 3.69-fold productivity difference. Siblings were clonal and, thus, 32 qualitatively genetically identical. Heterokaryon siblings can vary quantitatively but monokaryon 33 siblings are identical. Very large among-AMF sibling effects were observed at each location 34 although which sibling AMF was most effective depended strongly on location and cassava 35 variety. We demonstrate the enormous potential of genetic, and possibly epigenetic variation, in 36 AMF to greatly alter productivity of a globally important crop that should not be ignored. A 37 microbial improvement program to accelerate crop yield increases over that possible by plant 38 breeding or GMO technology alone is feasible. However, such a paradigm shift can only be 39 realised if researchers address how plant genetics and local environments affect mycorrhizal 40 responsiveness of crops to predict which fungal variant will be effective in a given location.41 For millennia farmers have improved crops using naturally occurring intraspecific plant genetic variation 42 to improve productivity. However, rates of yield increase attributed to plant breeding and GMO-crop 43 technology are not considered sufficient to feed the projected global human population 1 . Beneficial soil 65 there was a significant phylogenetic signal on spore density and clustering (Supplementary figure 1; 66Supplementary infor...
Generation of disproportionate nuclear genotype proportions in Rhizophagus irregularis progeny causes allelic imbalance in gene transcription
Early-diverging fungi (EDF) are distinct from Dikarya and other eukaryotes, exhibiting high N6-methyldeoxyadenine (6mA) contents, rather than 5-methylcytosine (5mC). As plants transitioned to land the EDF sub-phylum, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF; Glomeromycotina) evolved a symbiotic lifestyle with 80% of plant species worldwide. Here we show that these fungi exhibit 5mC and 6mA methylation characteristics that jointly set them apart from other fungi. The model AMF, R. irregularis, evolved very high levels of 5mC and greatly reduced levels of 6mA. However, unlike the Dikarya, 6mA in AMF occurs at symmetrical ApT motifs in genes and is associated with their transcription. 6mA is heterogeneously distributed among nuclei in these coenocytic fungi suggesting functional differences among nuclei. While far fewer genes are regulated by 6mA in the AMF genome than in EDF, most strikingly, 6mA methylation has been specifically retained in genes implicated in components of phosphate regulation; the quintessential hallmark defining this globally important symbiosis.
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