Abstract
Microbiomes influence plant establishment, development, nutrient acquisition, pathogen defense, and health. Plant microbiomes are shaped by interactions between the microbes and a selection process of host plants that distinguishes between pathogens, commensals, symbionts and transient bacteria. In this work, we explore the microbiomes through massive sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes of microbiomes two Marchantia species of liverworts. We compared microbiomes from M. polymorpha and M. paleacea plants collected in the wild relative to their soils substrates and from plants grown in vitro that were established from gemmae obtained from the same populations of wild plants. Our experimental setup allowed identification of microbes found in both native and in vitro Marchantia species. The main OTUs (97% identity) in Marchantia microbiomes were assigned to the following genera: Methylobacterium, Rhizobium, Paenibacillus, Lysobacter, Pirellula, Steroidobacter, and Bryobacter. The assigned genera correspond to bacteria capable of plant-growth promotion, complex exudate degradation, nitrogen fixation, methylotrophs, and disease-suppressive bacteria, all hosted in the relatively simple anatomy of the plant. Based on their long evolutionary history Marchantia is a promising model to study not only long-term relationships between plants and their microbes but also the transgenerational contribution of microbiomes to plant development and their response to environmental changes.
Highlights
All multicellular eukaryotes have a microbiome composed of prokaryotes, primarily bacteria, and eukaryotes, both uni- and multicellular
We found the Simpson’s diversity index to be high for the wild Marchantia species (D > 0.99) but lower for M. polymorpha (D = 0.903) and M. paleacea (D = 0.576) under in vitro conditions
We observed that Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) enriched in Marchantia showed evidence of plant-associated lifestyles supported by related cultured strains previously discussed
Summary
All multicellular eukaryotes have a microbiome composed of prokaryotes, primarily bacteria, and eukaryotes, both uni- and multicellular. In contrast to vascular plants that possess roots that penetrate deeply into the soil, sometimes meters, bryophytes adhere to the substratum via rhizoids, unicellular (liverworts, hornworts) or multicellular (mosses) filaments that penetrate only the top few millimeters of the substratum. Despite these differences, the rhizoids and ventral tissues of liverworts and hornworts are colonized by mycorrhizal fungi in a similar manner as the roots hairs and root tissues of vascular plants[4], reviewed in[12,13]. A few broad surveys of several bryophyte species has begun to provide insight into their broader bacterial microbiomes and have hinted at a diverse microbiome including some potential nitogen-fixing bacteria[5,18,19,20,21]
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