Distinguishing nutrient-dependent plant driven bacterial colonization patterns in alfalfa.

To understand factors that influence the assembly of microbial communities, we inoculated Medicago sativa with a series of nested bacterial synthetic communities and grew plants in distinct nitrogen concentrations. Two isolates in our eight-member synthetic community, Williamsia sp. R60 and Pantoea sp. R4, consistently dominate community structure across nitrogen regimes. While Pantoea sp. R4 consistently colonizes plants to a higher degree compared to the other six organisms across each community and each nutrient level, Williamsia sp. R60 exhibits nutrient specific colonization differences. Williamsia sp. R60 is more abundant in plants grown at higher nitrogen concentrations, but exhibits the opposite trend when no plant is present, indicating plant-driven influence over colonization. Our research discovered unique, repeatable colonization phenotypes for individual microbes during plant microbiome assembly, and identified alterations caused by the host plant, microbes, and available nutrients.

Microbial Ecology: How to Fight the Establishment.

Creating microbial consortia capable of consistently producing desired qualities requires a detailed understanding of community interactions. A new paper demonstrates the role of historical contingency in Arabidopsis thaliana leaf-microbiome formation using an adaptable experimental approach, which could be applied to other host organisms.