The fungal root endophyte Serendipita vermifera displays inter-kingdom synergistic beneficial effects with the microbiota in Arabidopsis thaliana and barley

Lisa K Mahdi,Jane E Parker,Shingo Miyauchi,Davide Bulgarelli,Ruben Garrido-Oter,Alga Zuccaro,Charles Uhlmann,Senga Robertson-Albertyn,Gregor Langen,Stephan Wawra,Yulong Niu,Rui Guan

doi:10.1038/s41396-021-01138-y

Abstract

Plant root-associated bacteria can confer protection against pathogen infection. By contrast, the beneficial effects of root endophytic fungi and their synergistic interactions with bacteria remain poorly defined. We demonstrate that the combined action of a fungal root endophyte from a widespread taxon with core bacterial microbiota members provides synergistic protection against an aggressive soil-borne pathogen in Arabidopsis thaliana and barley. We additionally reveal early inter-kingdom growth promotion benefits which are host and microbiota composition dependent. Using RNA-sequencing, we show that these beneficial activities are not associated with extensive host transcriptional reprogramming but rather with the modulation of expression of microbial effectors and carbohydrate-active enzymes.

Highlights

Plant pathogenic fungi limit crop productivity globally
Sebacinales associate with healthy Arabidopsis plants in diverse European locations By monitoring root-associated microbial communities in natural A. thaliana populations, Thiergart et al [9] showed that microbial community differentiation in the roots is explained primarily by location for filamentous eukaryotes and by soil origin for bacteria, whereas host genotype effects are marginal
We re-analyzed this dataset, including lower abundance operational taxonomic units (OTUs), and found that fungal OTUs of the order Sebacinales were significantly enriched in the rhizoplane compartment of healthy Arabidopsis plants in diverse European locations (Fig. 1)

Summary

Introduction

Plant pathogenic fungi limit crop productivity globally. These threats are expected to increase with global warming [1]. Decades of advances in agrochemicals and plant breeding have expanded farmers’ toolkits with fungicides and resistant varieties to limit the detrimental effects of these organisms on crop yield. A key example of this scenario is represented by the soil-borne plant pathogen Bipolaris sorokiniana Cochliobolus sativus, hereafter Bs), the causal agent of spot blotch and common root rot diseases that threaten cereal production in warm regions [1,2,3]. Root rot normally originates from inoculum carried on the seed or from soil-borne conidia, but the fungus can infect plants at any developmental stage. As the importance of root-inhabiting pathogenic fungi has often been underestimated, very little is known about the molecular mechanism behind the detrimental interaction of Bs with roots [4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion