Fine-scale mapping of the microbiome on phylloplane and spermoplane of aromatic and non-aromatic rice genotypes

Adaxial, abaxial phylloplane (leaf), and spermoplane (seed) are proximal yet contrasting habitats for a microbiota that needs to be adequately explored. Here, we proposed novel methods to decipher the adaxial/abaxial-phylloplane and spermoplane-microbiomes. Comparison of 22 meta barcoded-NGS datasets (size of total data set-1980.48 Mb) enabled us to fine-map the microbiome of the rice foliar niche, which encompasses the lower, middle, top leaf as well panicle. Here, the total- and the cultivable-microbiome profiling revealed 157 genera representing ten phyla and 87 genera from 4 bacterial phyla, respectively, with a predominance of Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria. Interestingly, more bacterial communities (124-genera) preferred the abaxial than the adaxial phylloplane (104-genera) and spermoplane (67-genera) for colonization. The microbiome profiles were nearly identical on the aromatic (125-genera) and non-aromatic rice (116-genera) with high representation of Pantoea, Methylobacterium, Curtobacterium, Sphingopyxis, and Microbacterium. The culturomics investigation confirmed the abundance of Pantoea, Chryseobacterium, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Sphingobacterium, and Exiguobacterium. One hundred bacterial isolates characterized and identified by polyphasic-taxonomic tools revealed the dominance of Acinetobacter, Chryseobacterium, Enterobacter, Massilia, Pantoea, Pseudomonas, and Stenotrophomonas on adaxial/abaxial-phylloplane and spermoplane. The study culminated in identifying hitherto unexplored bacterial communities on the adaxial/abaxial phylloplane and spermoplane of rice that can be harnessed for microbiome-assisted rice cultivation in the future.