Sulfur oxidation and reduction are coupled to nitrogen fixation in the roots of the salt marsh foundation plant Spartina alterniflora.

Heterotrophic activity, primarily driven by sulfate-reducing prokaryotes, has traditionally been linked to nitrogen fixation in the root zone of coastal marine plants, leaving the role of chemolithoautotrophy in this process unexplored. Here, we show that sulfur oxidation coupled to nitrogen fixation is a previously overlooked process providing nitrogen to coastal marine macrophytes. In this study, we recovered 239 metagenome-assembled genomes from a salt marsh dominated by the foundation plant Spartina alterniflora, including diazotrophic sulfate-reducing and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. Abundant sulfur-oxidizing bacteria encode and highly express genes for carbon fixation (RuBisCO), nitrogen fixation (nifHDK) and sulfur oxidation (oxidative-dsrAB), especially in roots stressed by sulfidic and reduced sediment conditions. Stressed roots exhibited the highest rates of nitrogen fixation and expression level of sulfur oxidation and sulfate reduction genes. Close relatives of marine symbionts from the Candidatus Thiodiazotropha genus contributed ~30% and ~20% of all sulfur-oxidizing dsrA and nitrogen-fixing nifK transcripts in stressed roots, respectively. Based on these findings, we propose that the symbiosis between S. alterniflora and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria is key to ecosystem functioning of coastal salt marshes.

Improving potato drought tolerance through the induction of long-term water stress memory.

Knowledge of drought tolerance in potato is limited and very little is known about stress memory in this crop. In the present study, long-term stress memory was tested on tuber yield and drought tolerance related traits in three potato varieties (Unica, Désirée and Sarnav) with contrasted yields under water restriction. Seed tubers produced by plants grown under non-restricted (non-primed tubers) and restricted (primed tubers) water conditions were sown and exposed to similar watering treatments. Tuber yield and leaf greenness of plants from primed and non-primed seeds as well as tuber carbon isotope discrimination (Δ(13)C) and antioxidant activity (AA) responses to watering treatments were compared. Higher tuber yield, both under non-restricted and restricted water regimes, was produced by primed Sarnav plants. The decrease of tuber yield and Δ(13)C with water restriction was lower in primed Unica plants. Long-term stress memory consequently appears to be highly genotype-dependent in potato. Its expression in plants originated from primed tubers and facing water restriction seems to be positively associated to the degree of inherent capability of the cultivar to yield under water restriction. However, other effects of priming appear to be genotype-independent as priming enhanced the tuber AA in response to water restriction in the three varieties.