A microorganisms’ journey between plant generations

Abstract

BackgroundPlants are colonized by a great diversity of microorganisms which form a microbiota and perform additional functions for their host. This microbiota can thus be considered a toolbox enabling plants to buffer local environmental changes, with a positive influence on plant fitness. In this context, the transmission of the microbiota to the progeny represent a way to ensure the presence of beneficial symbionts within the habitat. Examples of such transmission have been mainly described for seed transmission and concern a few pathogenic microorganisms. We investigated the transmission of symbiotic partners to plant progeny within clonal plant network.MethodsWe used the clonal plant Glechoma hederacea as plant model and forced newly emitted clonal progeny to root in separated pots while controlling the presence of microorganisms. We used an amplicon sequencing approach of 16S and 18S rRNA targeting bacteria/archaea and fungi respectively to describe the root microbiota of mother and clonal-plant offspring.ResultsWe demonstrated the vertical transmission of a significant proportion of the mother plants’ symbiotic bacteria and fungi to the daughters. Interestingly, archaea were not transmitted to the daughter plants. Transmitted communities had lower richness, suggesting a filtration during transmission. We found that the transmitted pool of microorganisms was similar among daughters, constituting the heritability of a specific cohort of microorganisms, opening a new understanding of the plant holobiont. We also found significant effects of distance to the mother plant and of growth time on the richness of the microbiota transmitted.ConclusionsIn this clonal plant, microorganisms are transmitted between individuals through connections, thereby ensuring the availability of microbe partners for the newborn plants as well as the dispersion between hosts for the microorganisms. This previously undescribed ecological process allows the dispersal of microorganisms in space and across plant generations. As the vast majority of plants are clonal, this process might be therefore a strong driver of ecosystem functioning and assembly of plant and microorganism communities in a wide range of ecosystems.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40168-018-0459-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Past spatial structure of plant communities determines arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community assembly

“…Moreover, this hypothesis would suggest that clonal plant networks serve as privileged dispersal pathways for AM fungi. AM fungi will disperse step by step from the older to the younger ramets (Vannier et al, ). Considering the importance of clonal growth in grassland ecosystems [70% of plant species (van Groenendael & de Kroon, )], this dispersal mechanism would be of particular importance for AM fungal species fitness and thus AM fungal community dynamics.…”

“…Moreover, this hypothesis would suggest that clonal plant networks serve as privileged dispersal pathways for AM fungi. AM fungi will disperse step by step from the older to the younger ramets (Vannier et al, 2018).…”

Maternal effects and environmental filtering shape seed fungal communities in oak trees

“…Seeds on the ground shared up to 50% of their fungal colonizers with the twigs and leaves of their mother tree. The mechanisms of community filtration during vertical transmission (Vannier et al , 2018) will have to be investigated in future studies.…”

The influence of host‐plant connectivity on fungal assemblages in the root microbiota of Brachypodium pinnatum

“…Understanding the assembly rules of plant microbiota is a central question of plant biology because of the tremendous ecological functions provided by symbiotic microorganisms to plants (Davison et al , Lekberg and Waller ). Next‐generation sequencing approaches have demonstrated that the microbiota of plants is composed of a large diversity of microorganisms, including bacteria (Lundberg et al , Bulgarelli et al ), archaea (Edwards et al , Vannier et al ), and fungi (Vandenkoornhuyse et al , Coleman‐Derr et al , Lê Van et al ). An increasing number of studies suggest that the identity of the host‐plant species (Vandenkoornhuyse et al , Martinez‐Garcia and Pugnaire , Yang et al ) and to some extent, its genotype (Bodenhausen et al , Edwards et al ) condition the associated microbiota through the preferential recruitment of particular fungi.…”