Abstract
Microbial communities are essential for plant health, but using these relationships to enhance growth and pest protection is challenging. Leveraging the natural mechanisms plants employ to manage relationships with microbes is one promising means to selectively engineer whole microbial communities with beneficial properties. This approach, known as host-guided selection, has been successful in some model species targeting performance traits (e.g., biomass). However, few studies use crop plants or focus on defensive traits (e.g., pest resistance). Our goal was to naturally engineer tomato root-associated microbiomes that increase resistance to insect pests. First, we used an iterative soil microbial inoculation process to engineer insect-suppressive rhizosphere soil microbiomes that reduce damage from aphid feeding ( Macrosiphum euphorbiae) or caterpillar defoliation ( Manduca sexta, Spodoptera exigua). We then characterized the bacterial and fungal microbial communities of soils associated with differences in insect performance using metabarcoding approaches. Overall, soil microbiome selection produced transient differences in aphid performance, but caterpillar growth was unaffected. In four of nine generations, the aphid population growth rate was significantly lower on plants with rhizospheres selected for “low” insect performance, where abundance was reduced by up to 20%. Correspondingly minor shifts in fungal and bacterial relative abundance occurred in insect-suppressive communities. However, network analysis indicated that aphid feeding disrupted rhizosphere microbiome assembly, resulting in lower community complexity and connectivity and fewer structurally important taxa compared with uninfested controls. Overall, our results highlight critical factors for successful engineering of beneficial microbiomes, particularly insect feeding guild and microbial community stability.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Soil microbiome selection produced transient differences in aphid performance.
- Taxon
- tomato
Solanum lycopersicume1 - Treatment
- soil microbiome selectione0
- Interactor
- aphide0pest
- Outcome
- aphid performancee0
- Qualifier
- transient differencese0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Overall, soil microbiome selection produced transient differences in aphid performance, but caterpillar growth was unaffected.”
e1“tomato root-associated microbiomes”
Claim · model-written summary
Microbiome selection did not affect Manduca sexta caterpillar growth.
- Taxon
- Manduca sexta
Manduca sextae1 - Treatment
- soil microbiome selectione0
- Outcome
- caterpillar growthe0
- Direction
- unaffectede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Overall, soil microbiome selection produced transient differences in aphid performance, but caterpillar growth was unaffected.”
e1“caterpillar defoliation ( Manduca sexta, Spodoptera exigua)”
Claim · model-written summary
Microbiome selection did not affect Spodoptera exigua caterpillar growth.
- Taxon
- Spodoptera exigua
Spodoptera exiguae1 - Treatment
- soil microbiome selectione0
- Outcome
- caterpillar growthe0
- Direction
- unaffectede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Overall, soil microbiome selection produced transient differences in aphid performance, but caterpillar growth was unaffected.”
e1“caterpillar defoliation ( Manduca sexta, Spodoptera exigua)”
Claim · model-written summary
Aphid population growth rate was significantly lower on plants selected for low insect performance in four of nine generations.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Treatment
- rhizospheres selected for “low” insect performancee0
- Interactor
- aphide0pest
- Outcome
- aphid population growth ratee0
- Direction
- lowere0
- Qualifier
- In four of nine generationse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In four of nine generations, the aphid population growth rate was significantly lower on plants with rhizospheres selected for “low” insect performance, where abundance was reduced by up to 20%.”
e1“tomato root-associated microbiomes”
Claim · model-written summary
Aphid abundance was reduced by up to 20% on plants with rhizospheres selected for low insect performance.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Treatment
- rhizospheres selected for “low” insect performancee0
- Interactor
- aphide0pest
- Outcome
- abundancee0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- up to 20%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In four of nine generations, the aphid population growth rate was significantly lower on plants with rhizospheres selected for “low” insect performance, where abundance was reduced by up to 20%.”
e1“tomato root-associated microbiomes”
Claim · model-written summary
Minor shifts in fungal and bacterial relative abundance occurred in insect-suppressive communities.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Interactor
- fungale0other
- Second interactor
- bacteriale0other
- Outcome
- fungal and bacterial relative abundancee0
- Qualifier
- minor shiftse0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Correspondingly minor shifts in fungal and bacterial relative abundance occurred in insect-suppressive communities.”
e1“tomato root-associated microbiomes”
Claim · model-written summary
Aphid feeding lowered rhizosphere community complexity and connectivity and reduced structurally important taxa relative to uninfested controls.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Treatment
- aphid feedinge0
- Interactor
- aphide0pest
- Outcome
- community complexity and connectivitye0
- Direction
- lowere0
- Comparator
- uninfested controlse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“aphid feeding disrupted rhizosphere microbiome assembly, resulting in lower community complexity and connectivity and fewer structurally important taxa compared with uninfested controls.”
e1“tomato root-associated microbiomes”
Claim · model-written summary
Aphid feeding resulted in fewer structurally important rhizosphere taxa than in uninfested controls.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Treatment
- aphid feedinge0
- Interactor
- aphide0pest
- Outcome
- structurally important taxae0
- Direction
- fewere0
- Comparator
- uninfested controlse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“aphid feeding disrupted rhizosphere microbiome assembly, resulting in lower community complexity and connectivity and fewer structurally important taxa compared with uninfested controls.”
e1“tomato root-associated microbiomes”