Abiotic Stresses Shift Belowground Populus-Associated Bacteria Toward a Core Stress Microbiome

Area of Science:

• Plant science
• Microbiome research
• Environmental stress biology

Background:

• Adverse environmental conditions negatively impact plant growth, yield, and survival.
• Plant-associated microbes can mitigate stress and enhance growth under suboptimal conditions.
• Understanding microbiome dynamics is crucial for improving crop resilience and yield.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how the belowground microbiome of *Populus deltoides* responds to environmental stressors.
• To identify core microbial taxa associated with plant stress.
• To understand the role of the microbiome in plant adaptation to stress.

Main Methods:

• Microbiome inoculation strategy applied to *Populus deltoides*.
• Exposure to diverse environmental conditions: water limitation, light limitation, and metal toxicity.
• Analysis of plant growth, photosynthesis, gene expression, and metabolite profiles.

Main Results:

• Plant responses to stress treatments were varied.
• A core set of bacterial genera consistently changed in abundance under host stress.
• Substantial structure was observed in the plant microbiome community.

Conclusions:

• The study identified a conserved
• stress microbiome
• indicating structured host-microbe relationships.
• The microbiome's ability to buffer plants from environmental extremes suggests potential for targeted microbiome modulation.
• This research offers opportunities for optimizing plant growth and yield through microbiome engineering.