Using transects to disentangle the environmental drivers of plant-microbiome assembly

Area of Science:

• Plant-microbiome interactions
• Ecology
• Microbial ecology

Background:

• Environmental heterogeneity drives plant-microbiome assembly, but specific climate and soil drivers are poorly understood.
• The wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) serves as a model system to investigate plant microbiome formation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify key environmental factors influencing the bacterial and fungal communities associated with wild strawberry plants.
• To determine if these factors are consistent across different geographic populations (North America and Europe).

Main Methods:

• Examined bacterial and fungal communities colonizing wild strawberry plants.
• Utilized transects as replicates across North American and European populations.
• Analyzed environmental data including soil nutrients and temperature.

Main Results:

• Found significant overlap in environmental conditions predicting plant microbiome similarity and richness across continents.
• Soil nutrients were identified as key predictors, replicating across diverse locations.
• Temperature emerged as a primary predictor for bacterial and fungal diversity in both leaf and root microbiomes.

Conclusions:

• A limited set of environmental factors and their interactions consistently shape plant microbiome formation.
• These findings have implications for predicting microbial contributions to plant productivity in changing environments.
• Highlights the role of climate and soil conditions in structuring plant-associated microbial communities.