Abstract:Plant-associated microbes affect a wide-variety of plant functional traits, and thus they likely affect patterns of plant local adaptation. However, the role of microbes in plant local adaptation is rarely tested. In a survey of the plant local adaptation literature, I found that the vast majority of studies that report local adaptation (94%) performed transplants into microbe-containing soils and measured traits that are microbemediated. In these studies, microbe-mediated effects are confounded with plant gen… Show more
“…Unfortunately, little has been done regarding the phyllosphere. Among current studies, the impacts of plant evolutionary history and contemporary evolution on plant, soil and rhizosphere microbiome responses to climate change have received much attention (Lambers et al ., 2009 ; Fitzpatrick et al ., 2020 ; Petipas et al ., 2021 ).…”
Section: Ecoevolutionary Dynamics Between the Phyllosphere And Its Mi...mentioning
Summary
Plants form complex interaction networks with diverse microbiomes in the environment, and the intricate interplay between plants and their associated microbiomes can greatly influence ecosystem processes and functions. The phyllosphere, the aerial part of the plant, provides a unique habitat for diverse microbes, and in return the phyllosphere microbiome greatly affects plant performance. As an open system, the phyllosphere is subjected to environmental perturbations, including global change, which will impact the crosstalk between plants and their microbiomes. In this review, we aim to provide a synthesis of current knowledge of the complex interactions between plants and the phyllosphere microbiome under global changes and to identify future priority areas of research on this topic.
“…Unfortunately, little has been done regarding the phyllosphere. Among current studies, the impacts of plant evolutionary history and contemporary evolution on plant, soil and rhizosphere microbiome responses to climate change have received much attention (Lambers et al ., 2009 ; Fitzpatrick et al ., 2020 ; Petipas et al ., 2021 ).…”
Section: Ecoevolutionary Dynamics Between the Phyllosphere And Its Mi...mentioning
Summary
Plants form complex interaction networks with diverse microbiomes in the environment, and the intricate interplay between plants and their associated microbiomes can greatly influence ecosystem processes and functions. The phyllosphere, the aerial part of the plant, provides a unique habitat for diverse microbes, and in return the phyllosphere microbiome greatly affects plant performance. As an open system, the phyllosphere is subjected to environmental perturbations, including global change, which will impact the crosstalk between plants and their microbiomes. In this review, we aim to provide a synthesis of current knowledge of the complex interactions between plants and the phyllosphere microbiome under global changes and to identify future priority areas of research on this topic.
“…However, it is conceivable that the response of disturbed-plant types to historical heavy grazing may have involved the enhancement of positive plant-mycorrhiza feedbacks, at least for the single legume species (Zuppinger-Dingley et al, 2016). AM fungi can co-evolve with plants to maximize mutualistic effects of symbioses under environmental stresses, such as resource limitation (Johnson et al, 2010;Petipas et al, 2021;Rúa et al, 2016), so it is possible that heavy grazing and associated low soil nutrient availability (Table S1) contributed to the enhancement of positive plant-mycorrhiza feedbacks. This is consistent with the knowledge that plants depend more on AM fungi for nutrient acquisition in less fertile soils (Hoeksema et al, 2010).…”
Section: Plant-soil Interactions Vary With Historical Contextmentioning
1. While most studies yield positive relationships between biodiversity (B) and ecosystem functioning (EF), awareness is growing that BEF relationships can vary with ecological context.The awareness has led to increased efforts to understand how contemporary environmental context modifies BEF relationships, but the role of historical context, and the mechanisms by which it may influence biodiversity effects, remains poorly understood.2. We examined how historical context alters plant diversity-community productivity relationships via plant species interactions in alpine grassland. We also tested how historical context modifies interactions between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, which can potentially mediate the above processes.3. We studied biodiversity effects on plant community productivity at two grassland sites with different histories related to grazing intensityheavy versus light livestock grazingbut similar current management. We assembled experimental communities of identical species composition with plants from each of the two sites in disturbed soil from a contemporary heavily grazed grassland, ranging in species richness from one to two, three and six species.Moreover, we carried out a mycorrhizal hyphae-exclusion experiment to test how plant interactions with AM fungi influence plant responses to historical context. 4. We detected a significantly positive diversity-productivity relationship that was driven by complementarity effects in communities composed of plants from the site without heavygrazing history, but no such relationship in plant communities composed of plants from the site with heavy-grazing history. Plants from the site with heavy-grazing history had increased competitive ability and increased yields in low-diversity communities but disrupted complementarity effects in high-diversity communities. Moreover, plants of one species from the site with heavy-grazing history benefitted more from AM fungal communities than did plants from the site without such history. 3 5. Synthesis: Using the same experimental design and species, communities assembled by plants from two sites with different historical contexts showed different plant diversitycommunity productivity relationships. Our results suggest that historical context can alter plant diversity-community productivity relationships via plant species interactions and potentially plant-soil interactions. Therefore, considering historical contexts of ecological communities is of importance for advancing our understanding of long-term impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on ecosystem functioning.
“…These host‐associated microbiomes—sometimes referred to as the “second genome”—are increasingly identified as a mechanism that allows hosts to expand their genomic and functional repertoire in dealing with a range of ecological challenges (Turner et al, 2013 ). Such microbiome‐derived capabilities can significantly benefit plant host fitness and performance by providing diverse functions such as mediation of host immunity, increased tolerance to environmental stress, and facilitation of access to novel nutrient sources (Korenblum et al, 2020 ; Petipas et al, 2021 ).…”
The rhizosphere has been called "one of the most complex ecosystems on earth" because it is a hotspot for interactions among millions of microbial cells. Many of these are microbes are also participating in a dynamic interplay with host plant tissues, signaling pathways, and metabolites. Historically, breeders have employed a plant-centric perspective when trying to harness the potential of microbiome-derived benefits to improve productivity and resilience of economically important plants. This is potentially problematic because: (i) the evolution of the microbes themselves is often ignored, and (ii) it assumes that the fitness of interacting plants and microbes is strictly aligned. In contrast, a microbe-centric perspective recognizes that putatively beneficial microbes are still under selection to increase their own fitness, even if there are costs to the host. This can lead to the evolution of sophisticated, potentially subtle, ways for microbes to manipulate the phenotype of their hosts, as well as other microbes in the rhizosphere. We illustrate this idea with a review of cases where rhizosphere microbes have been demonstrated to directly manipulate host root growth, architecture and exudation, host nutrient uptake systems, and host immunity and defense. We also discuss indirect effects, whereby fitness outcomes for the plant are a consequence of ecological interactions between rhizosphere microbes. If these consequences are positive for the plant, they can potentially be misconstrued as traits that have evolved to promote host growth, even if they are a result of selection for unrelated functions. The ubiquity of both direct microbial manipulation of hosts and context-dependent, variable indirect effects leads us to argue that an evolutionary perspective on rhizosphere microbial ecology will become increasingly important as we continue to engineer microbial communities for crop production.
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