Contribution of the seed microbiome to weed management

Abstract

Summary Seed‐attacking microorganisms have an undefined potential for management of the weed seedbank, either directly through inundative inoculation of soils with effective pathogenic strains, or indirectly by managing soils in a manner that promotes native seed‐decaying microorganisms. However, research in this area is still limited and not consistently successful because of technological limitations in identifying the pathogens involved and their efficacy. We suggest that these limitations can now be overcome through application of new molecular techniques to identify the microorganisms interacting with weed seeds and to decipher their functionality. However, an interdisciplinary weed management approach that includes weed scientists, microbiologists, soil ecologists and molecular biologists is required to provide new insights into physical and chemical interactions between different seed species and microorganisms. Such insight is a prerequisite to identify the best candidate organisms to consider for seedbank management and to find ways to increase weed seed suppressive soil communities.

Reviewing research priorities in weed ecology, evolution and management: a horizon scan

“…As such, weed functional diversity may play an important role in enhancing crop productivity by reducing losses due to insect pests and maintaining or enhancing soil health. Trophic interactions may also play important roles in regulating weed populations through, for example, weed seed predation (Westerman et al ., ; Franke et al ., ) and microbial degradation of viable seeds in the soil seedbank (Chee‐Sanford et al ., ; Müller‐Stöver et al ., ). Of course, weeds may also increase the negative impacts of other crop pests by acting as hosts, shelter and/or food sources for plant pathogens (Wisler & Norris, ) and herbivores.…”

Improving soil seed bank management

“…Additionally, weed scientists could look towards habitat modification to support microbes that degrade weed seeds. Microbial seed degradation is still an emerging area of research compared with insect predation, but both processes are relatively unexploited for agricultural weed management. Whether insects or microbes feed on weed seeds, these techniques are likely limited to use with large seeded crops, where the crop seed is robust enough to avoid predation.…”

High‐throughput sequencing reveals bacterial community composition in the rhizosphere of the invasive plant Flaveria bidentis

“…These conventional molecular biological methods are usually inadequate to capture systematic and comprehensive information on microbial communities (Lagos et al ., ). High‐throughput DNA sequencing technology targeting 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA or ITS gene sequences can determine the composition of the microbial community (Müller‐Stöver et al ., ). The technique now plays an important role in microbial ecology studies and makes the analysis of uncultivable microbial communities easier and faster.…”