Rhizosphere microorganisms can influence the timing of plant flowering

Background:Plant phenology has crucial biological, physical, and chemical effects on the biosphere. Phenological drivers have largely been studied, but the role of plant microbiota, particularly rhizosphere microbiota, has not been considered. - Results: We discovered that rhizosphere microbial comm...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Lu, Tao|||0000-0002-2030-3813, Ke, Mingjing, Lavoie, Michel, Jin, Yujian, Fan, Xiaoji, Zhang, Zhenyan, Fu, Zhengwei|||0000-0003-3351-3075, Sun, Liwei, Gillings, Michael|||0000-0002-4043-4351, Peñuelas, Josep|||0000-0002-7215-0150, Qian, Haifeng|||0000-0003-0807-9991, Zhu, Yong-Guan|||0000-0003-3861-8482
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:200858
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/200858
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1186/s40168-018-0615-0
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Rhizosphere
Microbiota
Root exudate
Nitrogen
Indole acetic acid
Arabidopsis
Flowering time
Descripción
Sumario:Background:Plant phenology has crucial biological, physical, and chemical effects on the biosphere. Phenological drivers have largely been studied, but the role of plant microbiota, particularly rhizosphere microbiota, has not been considered. - Results: We discovered that rhizosphere microbial communities could modulate the timing of flowering of Arabidopsis thaliana. Rhizosphere microorganisms that increased and prolonged N bioavailability by nitrification delayed flowering by converting tryptophan to the phytohormone indole acetic acid (IAA), thus downregulating genes that trigger flowering, and stimulating further plant growth. The addition of IAA to hydroponic cultures confirmed this metabolic network. - Conclusions: We document a novel metabolic network in which soil microbiota influenced plant flowering time, thus shedding light on the key role of soil microbiota on plant functioning. This opens up multiple opportunities for application, from helping to mitigate some of the effects of climate change and environmental stress on plants (e.g. abnormal temperature variation, drought, salinity) to manipulating plant characteristics using microbial inocula to increase crop potential.