Abstract
Plant health is strongly connected with plants´ microbiome. In case of raw-eaten plants, the microbiome can also affect human health. To study potential impacts on health issues of both hosts, the microbiome composition of seven different Brassica vegetables, originating from different food processing pathways, was analyzed by a combined approach of amplicon sequencing, metagenomic mining and cultivation. All Brassica vegetables harbored a highly diverse microbiota as identified by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The composition of the microbiota was found to be rather driven by the plant genotype than by the processing pathway. We characterized isolates with potential cancer-preventing properties by tracing myrosinase activity as well as isolates with biological control activity towards plant pathogens. We identified a novel strain with myrosinase activity and we found bacterial myrosinase genes to be enriched in rhizosphere and phyllosphere metagenomes of Brassica napus and Eruca sativa in comparison to the surrounding soil. Strains which were able to suppress plant pathogens were isolated from naturally processed vegetables and represent a substantial part (4.1%) of all vegetable microbiomes. Our results shed first light on the microbiome of edible plants and open the door to harnessing the Brassica microbiome for plant disease resistance and human health.
Highlights
The plant microbiome has been intensively studied for more than a century[1] but recently developed omics technologies provide much deeper insights into the plant-associated microbial diversity[2,3]
We considered whereas the food processing, associated with the point of sale, influences the microbial community composition, and affects human health, by comparing vegetables purchased at a local farmers market and a supermarket
When the samples were pooled by their processing pathway, no clusters were observed in the Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) plots (Fig. 1a)
Summary
The plant microbiome has been intensively studied for more than a century[1] but recently developed omics technologies provide much deeper insights into the plant-associated microbial diversity[2,3]. The present study unravels diversity and compositions of the microbiomes of usually eaten parts of seven different Brassica vegetables, focusing on two specific, health promoting functions of the microorganisms: i) myrosinase-activity, providing potential cancer-preventing properties for humans and ii) antagonistic activity towards microbial pathogens on crop plants. For the latter, we selected Verticillium longisporum as model pathogen, which is an emerging, high-risk pathogen of Brassicaceae[28] and its outbreaks are strongly correlated to the GLS content of the plant[23]. We considered whereas the food processing, associated with the point of sale, influences the microbial community composition, and affects human health, by comparing vegetables purchased at a local farmers market and a supermarket
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