Characterization of the microbial communities in wheat tissues and rhizosphere soil caused by dwarf bunt of wheat

Abstract

Dwarf bunt of wheat, which is caused by Tilletia controversa J.G. Kühn, is a soil-borne disease which may lead up to an 80% loss of yield together with degradation of the quality of the wheat flour by production of a fishy smell. In this study, high-throughput sequencing technology was employed to characterize the microbial composition of wheat tissues (roots, spikes, first stem under the ear, and stem base) and rhizosphere soil of wheat varieties that are resistant and susceptible to T. controversa. We observed that the soil fungal community abundance and diversity were higher in resistant varieties than in susceptible varieties in both inoculated and uninoculated wheat, and the abundances of Sordariomycetes and Mortierellomycetes increased in the resistant varieties infected with T. controversa, while the abundances of Dothideomycetes and Bacteroidia increased in the susceptible varieties. Regarding the bacteria present in wheat tissues, the abundances of Chloroflexi, Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes, Verrucomicrobia and Acidobacteria in the ear and the first stem under the ear were higher than those in other tissues. Our results indicated that the abundances of Sordariomycetes, Mortierellomycetes, Leotiomycetes, Chryseobacterium and Massilia were higher in T. controversa-infected resistant varieties than in their controls, that Dothideomycetes, Bacteroidia, Nocardioides and Pseudomonas showed higher abundances in T. controversa-infected susceptible varieties, and that Curtobacterium, Exiguobacterium, Planococcus, and Pantoea may have higher abundances in both T. controversa-infected susceptible and resistant varieties than in their own controls.

Modulation of the Wheat Seed-Borne Bacterial Community by Herbaspirillum seropedicae RAM10 and Its Potential Effects for Tryptophan Metabolism in the Root Endosphere

“…Inoculant-induced modulation of wheat indigenous actinobacterial populations was previously demonstrated using a mixed consortium as inoculum, where endophytic actinobacterial populations, including Curtobacterium and Terrabacter , were reduced by half ( Conn and Franco, 2004 ). A similar trend was recently observed in resistant and susceptible wheat lines inoculated with the fungal pathogen Tilletia controversa , where the relative abundances of Microbacterium and Curtobacterium , among other actinobacterial genera, were differentially modulated ( Xu et al, 2021 ). Inoculant-induced increase in the relative abundance of the genus Brevibacterium , observed in this study, has been demonstrated both through the addition of inoculants in compost and in healthy rhizospheric soils compared with diseased ones ( Lee et al, 2021 ).…”

Wheat Microbiome: Structure, Dynamics, and Role in Improving Performance Under Stress Environments

“…Further, Chryseobacterium and Massilia , and Nocardioides and Pseudomonas were abundant in wheat dwarf blunt infected resistant and susceptible varieties, respectively. Curtobacterium , Planococcus , Pantoea , and Exiguobacterium showed dominance in both resistant and susceptible varieties ( Xu et al, 2021 ). The phyllospheric microorganisms can tolerate extreme temperatures as well as substantial UV radiations, so they are a class of extremophiles.…”

Changes in soil fungal communities after onset of wheat yellow mosaic virus disease

“…These two classes of fungi exist in a variety of soils with resistance to pathogen infection (X. T. Xu et al, 2021).…”

“…These two classes of fungi exist in a variety of soils with resistance to pathogen infection (X. Liu et al, 2021 ; T. Xu et al, 2021 ). Many genera of the class Mortierellomycetes belong to plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF), which play a positive role in plant resistance to pathogen invasion ( Ozimek and Hanaka, 2021 ).…”