Abstract
Abstract Growth-promoting endophytes have great potential to boost crop production and sustainability. There is, however, a lack of research on how differences in the plant host affect an endophyte’s ability to promote growth. We set out to quantify how different maize genotypes respond to specific growth-promoting endophytes. We inoculated genetically diverse maize lines with three different known beneficial endophytes: Herbaspirillum seropedicae (a Gram-negative bacteria), Burkholderia WP9 (a Gram-negative bacteria), and Serendipita vermifera Subsp. bescii (a Basidiomycota fungi). Maize seedlings were grown for 3 weeks under controlled watering and limited nutrient conditions in the greenhouse and assessed for various growth-promotion phenotypes. We found Herbaspirillum seropedicae to increase chlorophyll content (p = 0.02), plant height (p = 0.012), root length (p = 0.057), and root volume (p = 0.044) significantly in different maize genotypes, while Burkholderia WP9 did not promote growth in maize genotypes under these conditions. Serendipita bescii significantly increased plant height (p = 0.0041), root (p = 0.0004) and shoot biomass (p = 0.0046) for different maize genotypes, and shoot mass growth promotion correlated (r = 0.58, p = 1.97e−09) with measured fungal abundance. Although plant genetic variation by itself had a strong effect on phenotype, its interaction with the different endophytes was weak, and the endophytes rarely produced consistent effects across different genotypes. This genome-by-genome interaction indicates that the relationship between a plant host and beneficial endophytes is complex, and it may partly explain why many microbe-based growth stimulants fail to translate from laboratory settings to the field. Detangling these interactions will provide a ripe area for future studies to understand how to best harness beneficial endophytes for agriculture.
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Claims 11
Claim · model-written summary
Herbaspirillum seropedicae increased maize chlorophyll content.
- Treatment
- Herbaspirillum seropedicaee0
- Interactor
- Herbaspirillum seropedicaeHerbaspirillum seropedicaee0symbiont
- Outcome
- chlorophyll contente0
- Direction
- increasee0
Zea maysNot reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Herbaspirillum seropedicae to increase chlorophyll content (p = 0.02)”
e1“how different maize genotypes respond”
Claim · model-written summary
Herbaspirillum seropedicae increased maize plant height.
- Treatment
- Herbaspirillum seropedicaee0
- Interactor
- Herbaspirillum seropedicaeHerbaspirillum seropedicaee0symbiont
- Outcome
- plant heighte0
- Direction
- increasee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Herbaspirillum seropedicae to increase chlorophyll content (p = 0.02), plant height (p = 0.012)”
e1“how different maize genotypes respond”
Claim · model-written summary
Herbaspirillum seropedicae increased maize root length.
- Treatment
- Herbaspirillum seropedicaee0
- Interactor
- Herbaspirillum seropedicaeHerbaspirillum seropedicaee0symbiont
- Outcome
- root lengthe0
- Direction
- increasee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Herbaspirillum seropedicae to increase chlorophyll content (p = 0.02), plant height (p = 0.012), root length (p = 0.057)”
e1“how different maize genotypes respond”
Claim · model-written summary
Herbaspirillum seropedicae increased maize root volume.
- Treatment
- Herbaspirillum seropedicaee0
- Interactor
- Herbaspirillum seropedicaeHerbaspirillum seropedicaee0symbiont
- Outcome
- root volumee0
- Direction
- increasee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Herbaspirillum seropedicae to increase chlorophyll content (p = 0.02), plant height (p = 0.012), root length (p = 0.057), and root volume (p = 0.044)”
e1“how different maize genotypes respond”
Claim · model-written summary
Burkholderia WP9 did not promote growth in maize genotypes.
- Treatment
- Burkholderia WP9e0
- Interactor
- Burkholderia WP9e0symbiont
- Outcome
- growthe0
- Direction
- did not promotee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Burkholderia WP9 did not promote growth in maize genotypes under these conditions.”
Claim · model-written summary
Serendipita bescii increased maize plant height.
- Treatment
- Serendipita besciie0
- Interactor
- Serendipita besciie0symbiont
- Outcome
- plant heighte0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Serendipita bescii significantly increased plant height (p = 0.0041)”
e1“how different maize genotypes respond”
Claim · model-written summary
Serendipita bescii increased maize root biomass.
- Treatment
- Serendipita besciie0
- Interactor
- Serendipita besciie0symbiont
- Outcome
- roote0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Serendipita bescii significantly increased plant height (p = 0.0041), root (p = 0.0004) and shoot biomass (p = 0.0046)”
e1“how different maize genotypes respond”
Claim · model-written summary
Serendipita bescii increased maize shoot biomass.
- Treatment
- Serendipita besciie0
- Interactor
- Serendipita besciie0symbiont
- Outcome
- shoot biomasse0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Serendipita bescii significantly increased plant height (p = 0.0041), root (p = 0.0004) and shoot biomass (p = 0.0046)”
e1“how different maize genotypes respond”
Claim · model-written summary
Shoot mass growth promotion correlated with fungal abundance.
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“shoot mass growth promotion correlated (r = 0.58, p = 1.97e−09) with measured fungal abundance.”
t0“Zea mays”
Claim · model-written summary
Plant genetic variation strongly affected phenotype.
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“plant genetic variation by itself had a strong effect on phenotype”
t0“Zea mays”
Claim · model-written summary
Genotype by endophyte interaction was weak and endophyte effects were rarely consistent across genotypes.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“its interaction with the different endophytes was weak, and the endophytes rarely produced consistent effects across different genotypes.”
t0“Zea mays”
The same questions in other papers
Burkholderia · growth · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
1 in the opposite direction
- positive
Herbaspirillum seropedicae · physiology: pigments · Zea mays (maize)Results agree
1 paper in the same direction as this paper
- positive
Herbaspirillum seropedicae · growth · Zea mays (maize)Results agree
2 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
- positive
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.