scholarly journals A fungal powdery mildew pathogen induces extensive local and marginal systemic changes in the Arabidopsis thaliana microbiota

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paloma Duran ◽  
Anja Reinstaedler ◽  
Anna Lisa Rajakrut ◽  
Masayoshi Hashimoto ◽  
Ruben Garrido-Oter ◽  
...  

Powdery mildew is a foliar disease caused by epiphytically growing obligate biotrophic ascomycete fungi. How powdery mildew colonization affects host resident microbial communities locally and systemically remains poorly explored. We performed powdery mildew (Golovinomyces orontii) infection experiments with Arabidopsis thaliana grown in either natural soil or a gnotobiotic system and studied the influence of pathogen invasion into standing natural multi-kingdom or synthetic bacterial communities (SynComs). We found that after infection of soil-grown plants, G. orontii outcompetes numerous resident leaf-associated fungi. We further detected a significant shift in foliar but not root-associated bacterial communities in this setup. Pre-colonization of germ-free A. thaliana leaves with a bacterial leaf-SynCom, followed by G. orontii invasion, induced an overall similar shift in the foliar bacterial microbiota and minor changes in the root-associated bacterial assemblage. However, a standing root SynCom in root samples remained robust against foliar infection with G. orontii. Although pathogen growth was unaffected by the leaf SynCom, fungal infection caused a more than two-fold increase in leaf bacterial load. Our findings indicate that G. orontii infection affects mainly microbial communities in local plant tissue, possibly driven by pathogen-induced changes in source-sink relationships and host immune status.

2014 ◽  
Vol 80 (15) ◽  
pp. 4779-4784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael E. Antwis ◽  
Gerardo Garcia ◽  
Andrea L. Fidgett ◽  
Richard F. Preziosi

ABSTRACTSymbiotic bacterial communities play a key role in protecting amphibians from infectious diseases including chytridiomycosis, caused by the pathogenic fungusBatrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Events that lead to the disruption of the bacterial community may have implications for the susceptibility of amphibians to such diseases. Amphibians are often marked both in the wild and in captivity for a variety of reasons, and although existing literature indicates that marking techniques have few negative effects, the response of cutaneous microbial communities has not yet been investigated. Here we determine the effects of passive integrated transponder (PIT) tagging on culturable cutaneous microbial communities of captive Morelet's tree frogs (Agalychnis moreletii) and assess the isolated bacterial strains for anti-B. dendrobatidisactivityin vitro. We find that PIT tagging causes a major disruption to the bacterial community associated with the skin of frogs (∼12-fold increase in abundance), as well as a concurrent proliferation in resident fungi (up to ∼200-fold increase). Handling also caused a disruption the bacterial community, although to a lesser extent than PIT tagging. However, the effects of both tagging and handling were temporary, and after 2 weeks, the bacterial communities were similar to their original compositions. We also identify two bacterial strains that inhibitB. dendrobatidis, one of which increased in abundance on PIT-tagged frogs at 1 day postmarking, while the other was unaffected. These results show that PIT tagging has previously unobserved consequences for cutaneous microbial communities of frogs and may be particularly relevant for studies that intend to use PIT tagging to identify individuals involved in trials to develop probiotic treatments.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Fracchia ◽  
L. Mangeot-Peter ◽  
L. Jacquot ◽  
F. Martin ◽  
C. Veneault-Fourrey ◽  
...  

AbstractThrough their roots, trees interact with a highly complex community of microorganisms belonging to various trophic guilds and contributing to tree nutrition, development and protection against stresses. Tree roots select for specific microbial species from the bulk soil communities. The root microbiome formation is a dynamic process but little is known on how the different microorganisms colonize the roots and how the selection occurs. To decipher if the final composition of the root microbiome is the product of several waves of colonization by different guilds of microorganisms, we planted sterile rooted cuttings of Gray Poplar obtained from plantlets propagated in axenic conditions in natural soil taken from a poplar stand. We analyzed the root microbiome at different time points between 2 and 50 days of culture by combining high-throughput Illumina MiSeq sequencing of fungal rDNA ITS and bacterial 16S rRNA amplicons with Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope observations. The microbial colonisation of poplar roots took place in three stages but the dynamic was different between bacteria and fungi. Root bacterial communities were clearly different from the soil after two days of culture. By contrast, if fungi were also already colonizing roots after two days, the initial communities were very close to the one of the soil and were dominated by saprotrophs. Those were slowly replaced by endophytes and ectomycorhizal fungi. The replacement of the most abundant fungal and bacterial community members observed in poplar roots along time suggest potential competition effect between microorganisms and/or a selection by the host.ImportanceThe tree root microbiome is composed of a very diverse set of bacterial and fungal communities. These microorganisms have a profound impact on tree growth, development and protection against different types of stress. They mainly originate from the bulk soil and colonize the root system which provides a unique nutrient rich-environment for a diverse assemblage of microbial communities. In order to better understand how the tree root microbiome is shaped along time, we observed the composition of root-associated microbial communities of naïve plantlets of poplar transferred in natural soil. The composition of the final root microbiome rely on a series of colonization stages characterized by the dominance of different fungal guilds and bacterial community members along time. Our observations suggest an early stabilization of bacterial communities, whereas fungal communities are established following a more gradual pattern.


2010 ◽  
Vol 76 (15) ◽  
pp. 4950-4959 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Kelly ◽  
Amit Bansal ◽  
Jonathan Winkelman ◽  
Lori R. Janus ◽  
Shannon Hell ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Elevated atmospheric CO2 can cause increased carbon fixation and altered foliar chemical composition in a variety of plants, which has the potential to impact forested headwater streams because they are detritus-based ecosystems that rely on leaf litter as their primary source of organic carbon. Fungi and bacteria play key roles in the entry of terrestrial carbon into aquatic food webs, as they decompose leaf litter and serve as a source of nutrition for invertebrate consumers. This study tested the hypothesis that changes in leaf chemistry caused by elevated atmospheric CO2 would result in changes in the size and composition of microbial communities colonizing leaves in a woodland stream. Three tree species, Populus tremuloides, Salix alba, and Acer saccharum, were grown under ambient (360 ppm) or elevated (720 ppm) CO2, and their leaves were incubated in a woodland stream. Elevated-CO2 treatment resulted in significant increases in the phenolic and tannin contents and C/N ratios of leaves. Microbial effects, which occurred only for P. tremuloides leaves, included decreased fungal biomass and decreased bacterial counts. Analysis of fungal and bacterial communities on P. tremuloides leaves via terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) and clone library sequencing revealed that fungal community composition was mostly unchanged by the elevated-CO2 treatment, whereas bacterial communities showed a significant shift in composition and a significant increase in diversity. Specific changes in bacterial communities included increased numbers of alphaproteobacterial and cytophaga-flavobacter-bacteroides (CFB) group sequences and decreased numbers of betaproteobacterial and firmicutes sequences, as well as a pronounced decrease in overall Gram-positive bacterial sequences.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1657
Author(s):  
Abdul-Salam Juhmani ◽  
Alessandro Vezzi ◽  
Mohammad Wahsha ◽  
Alessandro Buosi ◽  
Fabio De Pascale ◽  
...  

Seaweeds are a group of essential photosynthetic organisms that harbor a rich diversity of associated microbial communities with substantial functions related to host health and defense. Environmental and anthropogenic stressors may disrupt the microbial communities and their metabolic activity, leading to host physiological alterations that negatively affect seaweeds’ performance and survival. Here, the bacterial communities associated with one of the most common seaweed, Ulva laetevirens Areshough, were sampled over a year at three sites of the lagoon of Venice affected by different environmental and anthropogenic stressors. Bacterial communities were characterized through Illumina sequencing of the V4 hypervariable region of 16S rRNA genes. The study demonstrated that the seaweed associated bacterial communities at sites impacted by environmental stressors were host-specific and differed significantly from the less affected site. Furthermore, these communities were significantly distinct from those of the surrounding seawater. The bacterial communities’ composition was significantly correlated with environmental parameters (nutrient concentrations, dissolved oxygen saturation, and pH) across sites. This study showed that several more abundant bacteria on U. laetevirens at stressed sites belonged to taxa related to the host response to the stressors. Overall, environmental parameters and anthropogenic stressors were shown to substantially affect seaweed associated bacterial communities, which reflect the host response to environmental variations.


mSphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjelique Schulfer ◽  
Tasha M. Santiago-Rodriguez ◽  
Melissa Ly ◽  
Joshua M. Borin ◽  
Jessica Chopyk ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Alterations in diet can have significant impact on the host, with high-fat diet (HFD) leading to obesity, diabetes, and inflammation of the gut. Although membership and abundances in gut bacterial communities are strongly influenced by diet, substantially less is known about how viral communities respond to dietary changes. Examining fecal contents of mice as the mice were transitioned from normal chow to HFD, we found significant changes in the relative abundances and the diversity in the gut of bacteria and their viruses. Alpha diversity of the bacterial community was significantly diminished in response to the diet change but did not change significantly in the viral community. However, the diet shift significantly impacted the beta diversity in both the bacterial and viral communities. There was a significant shift away from the relatively abundant Siphoviridae accompanied by increases in bacteriophages from the Microviridae family. The proportion of identified bacteriophage structural genes significantly decreased after the transition to HFD, with a conserved loss of integrase genes in all four experimental groups. In total, this study provides evidence for substantial changes in the intestinal virome disproportionate to bacterial changes, and with alterations in putative viral lifestyles related to chromosomal integration as a result of shift to HFD. IMPORTANCE Prior studies have shown that high-fat diet (HFD) can have profound effects on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract microbiome and also demonstrate that bacteria in the GI tract can affect metabolism and lean/obese phenotypes. We investigated whether the composition of viral communities that also inhabit the GI tract are affected by shifts from normal to HFD. We found significant and reproducible shifts in the content of GI tract viromes after the transition to HFD. The differences observed in virome community membership and their associated gene content suggest that these altered viral communities are populated by viruses that are more virulent toward their host bacteria. Because HFD also are associated with significant shifts in GI tract bacterial communities, we believe that the shifts in the viral community may serve to drive the changes that occur in associated bacterial communities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McTee ◽  
Lorinda Bullington ◽  
Matthias C Rillig ◽  
Philip W Ramsey

ABSTRACTMany experiments that measure the response of microbial communities to heavy metals increase metal concentrations abruptly in the soil. However, it is unclear whether abrupt additions mimic the gradual and often long-term accumulation of these metals in the environment where microbial populations may adapt. In a greenhouse experiment that lasted 26 months, we tested whether bacterial communities and soil respiration differed between soils that received an abrupt or a gradual addition of copper or no copper at all. Bacterial richness and other diversity indices were consistently lower in the abrupt treatment compared to the ambient treatment that received no copper. The abrupt addition of copper yielded different initial bacterial communities than the gradual addition; however, these communities appeared to converge once copper concentrations were approximately equal. Soil respiration in the abrupt treatment was initially suppressed but recovered after four months. Afterwards, respiration in both the gradual and abrupt treatments wavered between being below or equal to the ambient treatment. Overall, our study indicates that gradual and abrupt additions of copper can yield similar bacterial communities and respiration, but these responses may drastically vary until copper concentrations are equal.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin R. Theis ◽  
Roberto Romero ◽  
Andrew D. Winters ◽  
Alan H. Jobe ◽  
Nardhy Gomez-Lopez

ABSTRACTThe prevailing paradigm in obstetrics has been the sterile womb hypothesis. However, some are asserting that the placenta, intra-amniotic environment, and fetus harbor microbial communities. The objective of this study was to determine if the fetal and placental tissues of rhesus macaques harbor viable bacterial communities. Fetal, placental, and uterine wall samples were obtained from cesarean deliveries without labor (∼130/166 days gestation). The presence of viable bacteria in the fetal intestine and placenta was investigated through culture. The bacterial burden and profile of the placenta, umbilical cord, and fetal brain, heart, liver, and colon were determined through quantitative real-time PCR and DNA sequencing. These data were compared with those of the uterine wall, as well as to negative and positive technical controls. Bacterial cultures of fetal and placental tissues yielded only a single colony of Cutibacterium acnes. This bacterium was detected at a low relative abundance (0.02%) in the 16S rRNA gene profile of the villous tree sample from which it was cultured, yet it was also identified in 12/29 background technical controls. The bacterial burden and profile of fetal and placental tissues did not exceed or differ from those of background technical controls. In contrast, the bacterial burden and profiles of positive controls exceeded and differed from those of background controls. Among the macaque samples, distinct microbial signals were limited to the uterine wall. Therefore, using multiple modes of microbiologic inquiry, there was not consistent evidence of viable bacterial communities in the fetal and placental tissues of rhesus macaques.IMPORTANCEMicrobial invasion of the amniotic cavity (i.e. intra-amniotic infection) has been causally linked to pregnancy complications, especially preterm birth. Therefore, if the placenta and the fetus are typically populated by low biomass yet viable microbial communities, current understanding of the role of microbes in reproduction and pregnancy outcomes will need to be fundamentally reconsidered. Could these communities be of benefit by competitively excluding potential pathogens or priming the fetal immune system for the microbial bombardment it will experience upon delivery? If so, what properties (e.g. microbial load, community membership) of these microbial communities preclude versus promote intra-amniotic infection? Given the ramifications of the in utero colonization hypothesis, critical evaluation is required. In this study, using multiple modes of microbiologic inquiry (i.e. culture, qPCR, DNA sequencing) and controlling for potential background DNA contamination, we did not find consistent evidence for microbial communities in the placenta and fetal tissues of rhesus macaques.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiz Henrique Rosa ◽  
Otávio Henrique Bezerra Pinto ◽  
Lívia Costa Coelho ◽  
Peter Convey ◽  
Micheline Carvalho-Silva ◽  
...  

Abstract We evaluated fungal and bacterial diversity in an established moss carpet on King George Island, Antarctica, affected by ‘fairy ring’ disease using metabarcoding. These microbial communities were assessed through the main stages of the disease. A total of 127 fungal and 706 bacterial taxa were assigned. The phylum Ascomycota dominated the fungal assemblages, followed by Basidiomycota, Rozellomycota, Chytridiomycota, Mortierellomycota and Monoblepharomycota. The fungal community displayed high indices of diversity, richness and dominance, which increased from healthy through infected to dead moss samples. Bacterial diversity and richness were greatest in healthy moss and least within the infected fairy ring. Chalara sp. 1, Alpinaria sp., Helotiaceae sp. 2, Chaetothyriales sp. 1, Ascomycota sp. 1, Rozellomycota sp. and Fungi sp. were most abundant within the fairy ring samples. A range of fungal taxa were more abundant in dead rather than healthy or fairy ring moss samples. The dominant prokaryotic phyla were Actinobacteriota, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota and Cyanobacteria. The taxon Cyanobacteriia sp., whilst consistently dominant, were less abundant in fairy ring samples. Microbacteriaceae sp. and Chloroflexi sp. were the most abundant taxa within the fairy rings. Our data confirmed the presence and abundance of a range of plant pathogenic fungi, supporting the hypothesis that the disease is linked with multiple fungal taxas. Further studies are required to characterise the interactions between plant pathogenic fungi and their host Antarctic mosses. Monitoring the dynamics of mutualist, phytopathogenic and decomposer microorganisms associated with moss carpets may provide bioindicators of moss health.


Author(s):  
Ze Ren ◽  
Hongkai Gao

Bacterial and fungal communities in biofilms are important components in driving biogeochemical processes in stream ecosystems. Previous studies have well documented the patterns of bacterial alpha diversity in stream biofilms in glacier-fed streams, where, however, beta diversity of the microbial communities has received much less attention especially considering both bacterial and fungal communities. A focus on beta diversity can provide insights into the mechanisms driving community changes associated to large environmental fluctuations and disturbances, such as in glacier-fed streams. Moreover, modularity of co-occurrence networks can reveal more ecological and evolutionary properties of microbial communities beyond taxonomic groups. Here, integrating beta diversity and co-occurrence approach, we explored the network topology and modularity of the bacterial and fungal communities with consideration of environmental variation in glacier-fed streams in Central Asia. Combining results from hydrological modeling and normalized difference of vegetation index, this study highlighted that hydrological variables and vegetation status are major variables determining the environmental heterogeneity of glacier-fed streams. Bacterial communities formed a more complex and connected network, while the fungal communities formed a more clustered network. Moreover, the strong interrelations among the taxonomic dissimilarities of bacterial community and modules suggest they had common processes in driving diversity and taxonomic compositions across the heterogeneous environment. In contrast, fungal community and modules generally showed distinct driving processes to each other. Moreover, bacterial and fungal communities also had different driving processes. Furthermore, the variation of bacterial community and modules were strongly correlated with hydrological properties and vegetation status but not with nutrients, while fungal community and modules (except one module) were not associated with environmental variation. Our results suggest that bacterial and fungal communities had distinct mechanisms in structuring microbial networks, and environmental variation had strong influences on bacterial communities but not on fungal communities. The fungal communities have unique assembly mechanisms and physiological properties which might lead to their insensitive responses to environmental variations compared to bacterial communities. Overall, beyond alpha diversity in previous studies, these results add our knowledge that bacterial and fungal communities have contrasting assembly mechanisms and respond differently to environmental variation in glacier-fed streams.


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