Abiotic Treatment to Common Bean Plants Results in an Altered Endophytic Seed Microbiome
Ari Fina Bintarti, Patrick J. Kearns, Abby Sulesky-Grieb, Ashley Shade
Abstract
Seed microbiome members initiate the assembly of plant-associated microbial communities, but the environmental drivers of endophytic seed microbiome composition are unclear. Here, we exposed plants to short-term drought and fertilizer treatments during early vegetative growth and quantified the microbiome composition of the seeds that were ultimately produced. We found that seeds produced by plants stressed by water limitation or receiving nutrient addition had statistically different endophytic bacterial/archaeal microbiome compositions from each other and from seeds produced by control plants. This work suggests that the abiotic experience of a parental plant can influence the composition of its seed microbiome, with unknown consequences for the next plant generation.