Center for Health & Bioresources, Bioresources Unit, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Tulln, Austria.
School of Chemical Engineering, Laboratory of Organic Chemistry and Center of Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation of AUTh, Natural Products Research Centre of Excellence (NatPro-AUTh), Aristotle University of Thessalonikigrid.4793.9, Thessaloniki, Greece.
mSystems. 2022 Oct 26;7(5):e0045122. doi: 10.1128/msystems.00451-22. Epub 2022 Sep 7.
Plants are naturally associated with diverse microbial communities, which play significant roles in plant performance, such as growth promotion or fending off pathogens. The roots of L. are rich in naphthoquinones, particularly the medicinally used enantiomers alkannin and shikonin and their derivatives. Former studies already have shown that microorganisms may modulate plant metabolism. To further investigate the potential interaction between and associated microorganisms, we performed a greenhouse experiment in which plants were grown in the presence of three distinct soil microbiomes. At four defined plant developmental stages, we made an in-depth assessment of bacterial and fungal root-associated microbiomes as well as all extracted primary and secondary metabolite content of root material. Our results showed that the plant developmental stage was the most important driver influencing the plant metabolite content, revealing peak contents of alkannin/shikonin derivatives at the fruiting stage. Plant root microbial diversity was influenced both by bulk soil origin and to a small extent by the developmental stage. The performed correlation analyses and cooccurrence networks on the measured metabolite content and the abundance of individual bacterial and fungal taxa suggested a dynamic and at times positive or negative relationship between root-associated microorganisms and root metabolism. In particular, the bacterial genera and as well as four species of the fungal genus were found to be positively correlated with higher content of alkannins. Previous studies have shown that individual, isolated microorganisms may influence secondary metabolism of plants and induce or stimulate the production of medicinally relevant secondary metabolism. Here, we analyzed the microbiome-metabolome linkage of the medicinal plant , which is known to produce valuable compounds, particularly the naphthoquinones alkannin and shikonin and their derivatives. A detailed bacterial and fungal microbiome and metabolome analysis of roots revealed that the plant developmental stage influenced root metabolite production, whereas soil inoculants from three different geographical origins in which plants were grown shaped root-associated microbiota. Metabolomes of plant roots of the same developmental stage across different soils were highly similar, pinpointing to plant maturity as the primary driver of secondary metabolite production. Correlation and network analyses identified bacterial and fungal taxa showing a positive relationship between root-associated microorganisms and root metabolism. In particular, the bacterial genera and as well as the fungal species of genus were found to be positively correlated with higher content of alkannins.
植物与多样化的微生物群落天然相关，这些微生物在植物生长、促进生长或抵御病原体等方面发挥着重要作用。拉拉藤的根富含萘醌类化合物，特别是药用对映异构体的胭脂酮和紫草素及其衍生物。先前的研究已经表明，微生物可能会调节植物的新陈代谢。为了进一步研究与相关微生物之间的潜在相互作用，我们进行了一项温室实验，在该实验中，拉拉藤植物在三种不同的土壤微生物群落中生长。在四个明确的植物发育阶段，我们深入评估了细菌和真菌根相关微生物组以及根材料中所有提取的初级和次级代谢物的含量。我们的结果表明，植物发育阶段是影响植物代谢物含量的最重要驱动因素，在结果阶段显示出胭脂酮/紫草素衍生物的含量峰值。植物根微生物多样性受土壤起源和发育阶段的影响。进行的相关分析和所测代谢物含量的共现网络以及个别细菌和真菌分类群的丰度表明，根相关微生物与根代谢之间存在动态的、有时是积极的或消极的关系。特别是，细菌属 和 以及真菌属的四个种与较高的胭脂酮含量呈正相关。先前的研究表明，个别分离的微生物可能会影响植物的次生代谢，并诱导或刺激产生药用相关的次生代谢产物。在这里，我们分析了药用植物拉拉藤的微生物组-代谢组联系，该植物已知能产生有价值的化合物，特别是萘醌类化合物胭脂酮和紫草素及其衍生物。对拉拉藤根的详细细菌和真菌微生物组和代谢组分析表明，植物发育阶段影响根代谢产物的产生，而在植物生长的三个不同地理起源的土壤接种物塑造了根相关的微生物群。来自不同土壤的具有相同发育阶段的植物根的代谢组非常相似，这表明植物成熟是次生代谢产物产生的主要驱动因素。相关性和网络分析确定了与根代谢呈正相关的细菌和真菌分类群。特别是，细菌属 和 以及真菌属的种与胭脂酮含量较高呈正相关。
