Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
USDA-ARS Sunflower and Plant Biology Research Unit, Edward T Schafer Agricultural Research Center, Fargo, North Dakota, USA.
Mol Ecol. 2024 Jan;33(2):e17218. doi: 10.1111/mec.17218. Epub 2023 Dec 1.
Host-microbe interactions are increasingly recognized as important drivers of organismal health, growth, longevity and community-scale ecological processes. However, less is known about how genetic variation affects hosts' associated microbiomes and downstream phenotypes. We demonstrate that sunflower (Helianthus annuus) harbours substantial, heritable variation in microbial communities under field conditions. We show that microbial communities co-vary with heritable variation in resistance to root infection caused by the necrotrophic pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and that plants grown in autoclaved soil showed almost complete elimination of pathogen resistance. Association mapping suggests at least 59 genetic locations with effects on both microbial relative abundance and Sclerotinia resistance. Although the genetic architecture appears quantitative, we have elucidated previously unexplained genetic variation for resistance to this pathogen. We identify new targets for plant breeding and demonstrate the potential for heritable microbial associations to play important roles in defence in natural and human-altered environments.
宿主-微生物相互作用正日益被视为影响生物机体健康、生长、寿命和群落尺度生态过程的重要驱动因素。然而，对于遗传变异如何影响宿主相关微生物组和下游表型，人们的了解还较少。我们证明，在田间条件下，向日葵（Helianthus annuus）具有大量可遗传的微生物群落变异。我们表明，微生物群落与对由坏死病原体核盘菌（Sclerotinia sclerotiorum）引起的根部感染的抗性的可遗传变异共变，并且在经过高压灭菌的土壤中生长的植物几乎完全消除了对病原体的抗性。关联图谱表明，至少有 59 个遗传位点对微生物相对丰度和核盘菌抗性都有影响。尽管遗传结构似乎是定量的，但我们已经阐明了以前无法解释的对这种病原体的抗性遗传变异。我们确定了新的植物育种目标，并证明了可遗传的微生物关联在自然和人为改变的环境中在防御中发挥重要作用的潜力。
