Growth and Behavior of North American Microbes on Leaves.

subsp is a cosmopolitan wetland grass that is invasive in many regions of the world, including North America, where it co-occurs with the closely related subsp. Because the difference in invasive behavior is unlikely to be related to physiological differences, we hypothesize that interactions with unique members of their microbiomes may significantly affect the behavior of each subspecies. Therefore, we systematically inoculated both plant lineages with a diverse array of 162 fungal and bacterial isolates to determine which could (1) differentiate between hosts, (2) infect leaves at various stages of development, or (3) obtain plant-based carbon saprophytically. We found that many of the microbes isolated from leaves behave as saprophytes. Only 1% (two taxa) were determined to be strong pathogens, 12% (20 taxa) were weakly pathogenic, and the remaining 87% were nonpathogenic. None of the isolates clearly discriminated between host plant lineages, and the cuticle was shown to be a strong nonspecific barrier to infection. These results largely agree with the broad body of literature on leaf-associated phyllosphere microbes in .