Abstract
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.
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Rhizosphere microbial communities modulated Arabidopsis flowering time.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thaliana
Arabidopsis thalianae0 - Treatment
- rhizosphere microbial communitiese0
- Interactor
- rhizosphere microbial communitiese0other
- Outcome
- timing of floweringe0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“rhizosphere microbial communities could modulate the timing of flowering of Arabidopsis thaliana”
Claim · model-written summary
Rhizosphere microorganisms delayed flowering.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Treatment
- Rhizosphere microorganismse0
- Interactor
- Rhizosphere microorganismse0other
- Outcome
- floweringe0
- Direction
- delayede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Rhizosphere microorganisms that increased and prolonged N bioavailability by nitrification delayed flowering by converting tryptophan to the phytohormone indole acetic acid (IAA)”
t0“timing of flowering of Arabidopsis thaliana.”
Claim · model-written summary
These rhizosphere microorganisms stimulated additional plant growth.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Treatment
- Rhizosphere microorganismse0
- Interactor
- Rhizosphere microorganismse0other
- Outcome
- plant growthe0
- Direction
- stimulatinge0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“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”
t0“timing of flowering of Arabidopsis thaliana.”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors attribute delayed flowering to microbial conversion of tryptophan to IAA and downregulation of flowering genes.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Compound
- indole acetic acid (IAA)e0
- Outcome
- delayed floweringe0
- Qualifier
- downregulating genes that trigger floweringe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“delayed flowering by converting tryptophan to the phytohormone indole acetic acid (IAA), thus downregulating genes that trigger flowering”
t0“timing of flowering of Arabidopsis thaliana.”
Claim · model-written summary
Adding IAA to hydroponic cultures confirmed the proposed metabolic network.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Treatment
- addition of IAAe0
- Outcome
- confirmed this metabolic networke0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The addition of IAA to hydroponic cultures confirmed this metabolic network”
t0“timing of flowering of Arabidopsis thaliana.”