Effect of hybridization on endophytes: the endo-microbiome dynamics

Abstract

In this era of dwindling natural resources and climate change, the target of increasing crop production for feeding 10 billion people by the year 2050 has mounted huge pressure on the scientific community. The cultivation of hybrid varieties has contributed immensely towards food security and made it possible to meet the requirements of the rapidly increasing human population. A typical plant breeding approach involves hybridization i.e. crossing two genetically different individuals, to create genetic variation. At the genetic level, the genomes of two individuals combine to form a hybrid, but what happens to the associated microbiota is largely unknown. Endophytes are one such class of plant-associated microbiota that have been reported to inhabit the internal tissues of plants, without causing any disease symptoms. With the advent of the holobiome concept, the importance of microbiome in plant health and productivity is being increasingly realized. In this perspective, understanding the nature of plant-endophyte association in hybrids and transmission/colonization of endophytes upon hybridization (i.e. from parents to progenies) is a pre-requisite for laying the foundation of plant holobiont breeding. This emerging discipline aims to integrate the best of both worlds (hybrid plant genome and microbiome) for realizing the untapped potential of the plant microbiota (and hence, the holobiont) to adverse environmental conditions. This review attempts to summarize our current understanding of the hybrid plant-associated microbiome with respect to its parental lines and wild progenitors. Further, the review highlights some research gaps in the field and beckons the attention of scientific community towards understanding and applying this knowledge for further boosting the crop productivity, the need of the hour.