Insights from invasion ecology: Can consideration of eco-evolutionary experience promote benefits from root mutualisms in plant production?

Abstract

Mutualistic plant–microbial functioning relies on co-adapted symbiotic partners as well as conducive environmental conditions. Choosing particular plant genotypes for domestication and subsequent cultivar selection can narrow the gene pools of crop plants to a degree that they are no longer able to benefit from microbial mutualists. Elevated mineral nutrient levels in cultivated soils also reduce the dependence of crops on nutritional support by mutualists such as mycorrhizal fungi and rhizobia. Thus, current ways of crop production are predestined to compromise the propagation and function of microbial symbionts, limiting their long-term benefits for plant yield stability. The influence of mutualists on non-native plant establishment and spread, i.e. biological invasions, provides an unexplored analogue to contemporary crop production that accounts for mutualistic services from symbionts like rhizobia and mycorrhizae. The historical exposure of organisms to biotic interactions over evolutionary timescales, or so-called eco-evolutionary experience (EEE), has been used to explain the success of such invasions. In this paper, we stress that consideration of the EEE concept can shed light on how to overcome the loss of microbial mutualist functions following crop domestication and breeding. We propose specific experimental approaches to utilize the wild ancestors of crops to determine whether crop domestication compromised the benefits derived from root microbial symbioses or not. This can predict the potential for success of mutualistic symbiosis manipulation in modern crops and the maintenance of effective microbial mutualisms over the long term.

A core of rhizosphere bacterial taxa associates with two of the world’s most isolated plant congeners

“…During deterministic processes, such as plant-microbe compatibility (e.g., Louca et al 2017) and adaptation (e.g., Fitzpatrick et al 2018), trait differences are decisive. On the other hand, stochastic processes that govern rhizosphere microbial community assembly involve chance encounters of partners, infection pressure, infection priority or propagule dispersal (Nemergut et al 2013;Le Roux et al 2017;Martín-Robles et al 2018;Ramoneda et al 2019). The diversity and composition of plantassociated soil microbiomes are also influenced by abiotic conditions such as temperature, soil water availability and organic carbon content (Fierer 2012, Bulgarelli et al 2013, Philippot et al 2013.…”

Bio-stabilization of toxic weeds (Xanthium strumarium and Lantana camara) implementing mono- and polyculture of Eisenia fetida and Eudrilus eugeniae

“…In the period of establishment, they can also colonise and adapt to biotic and abiotic restrictions, developing into enduring populations. Their potential to persist and proliferate is a key factor in their long-term propagation and invasion process (Ramoneda et al 2019). Anthropogenic activity helps the rapid spread of alien species across the different ecosystems across the globe, signi cantly harming local biodiversity and socioeconomic situations (Kumar Rai and Singh 2020).…”

Geographical patterns of root nodule bacterial diversity in cultivated and wild populations of a woody legume crop

“…There is increasing awareness that legume crops need to frequently interact with soil rhizobial propagules in order to maintain the symbiotic fitness benefits derived from these interactions (Burghardt 2019; Ramoneda et al 2019). Over their life span, legumes create new available niches for a wide range of rhizobia to colonize (Dinnage et al 2019), in turn supporting the high rhizobial diversity in local plant populations.…”