Understanding the phyllosphere microbiome assemblage in grape species (Vitaceae) with amplicon sequence data...

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Plant Science
• Genomics

Background:

• The phyllosphere microbiome influences plant health and performance.
• Previous studies focused on Vitis vinifera genotypes, neglecting the impact of different grape species.
• Understanding grape species' effect on phyllosphere microbes is crucial for viticulture.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of grape species on phyllosphere microbial community structure.
• To analyze the influence of the growing year on these microbial assemblages.
• To evaluate different normalization methods for microbiome data.

Main Methods:

• 16S and ITS profiling for bacterial and fungal characterization.
• Genus-level analysis of phyllosphere microflora from five grape species.
• Alpha and beta diversity analyses over two consecutive years.
• Comparison of normalization methods for high-throughput microbiome data.

Main Results:

• Significant effects of both grape species and growing year on microbial diversity were observed.
• The growing year had a more pronounced impact than grape species.
• One normalization method showed superiority, indicating a need for improved techniques.
• Differential taxa abundance analyses were influenced by normalization choices.

Conclusions:

• Grape species and environmental factors like the growing year shape the phyllosphere microbiome.
• Robust normalization is critical for accurate differential abundance analysis in microbiome studies.
• This research provides insights into grape-associated microbial ecology and data processing.