Dataset Information

Dispersal-competition tradeoff in microbiomes in the quest for land colonization.

ABSTRACT: Ancestor microbes started colonizing inland habitats approximately 2.7 to 3.5 billion years ago. With some exceptions, the key physiological adaptations of microbiomes associated with marine-to-land transitions have remained elusive. This is essentially caused by the lack of suitable systems that depict changes in microbiomes across sufficiently large time scales. Here, we investigate the adaptive routes taken by microbiomes along a contemporary gradient of land formation. Using functional trait-based metagenomics, we show that a switch from a microbial 'dispersal' to a 'competition' response modus best characterizes the microbial trait changes during this eco-evolutionary trajectory. The 'dispersal' modus prevails in microbiomes at the boundary sites between land and sea. It encompasses traits conferring cell chemosensory and motile behaviors, thus allowing the local microbes to exploit short-lived nutritional patches in high-diffusion microhabitats. A systematic transition towards the 'competition' modus occurs progressively as the soil matures, which is likely due to forces of viscosity or strain that favor traits for competition and chemical defense. Concomitantly, progressive increases in the abundances of genes encoding antibiotic resistance and complex organic substrate degradation were found. Our findings constitute a novel perspective on the ecology and evolution of microbiome traits, tracking back one of the most seminal transitions in the evolutionary history of life.

SUBMITTER: Dini-Andreote F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6013473 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Dispersal-competition tradeoff in microbiomes in the quest for land colonization.

Dini-Andreote Francisco F van Elsas Jan Dirk JD Olff Han H Salles Joana Falcão JF

Scientific reports 20180621 1

Ancestor microbes started colonizing inland habitats approximately 2.7 to 3.5 billion years ago. With some exceptions, the key physiological adaptations of microbiomes associated with marine-to-land transitions have remained elusive. This is essentially caused by the lack of suitable systems that depict changes in microbiomes across sufficiently large time scales. Here, we investigate the adaptive routes taken by microbiomes along a contemporary gradient of land formation. Using functional trait ...[more]

PMID: 29930350

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Project description:Plant pathogenic bacteria cause high crop and economic losses to human societies1-3. Infections by such pathogens are challenging to control as they often arise through complex interactions between plants, pathogens and the plant microbiome4,5. Experimental studies of this natural ecosystem at the microbiome-wide scale are rare, and consequently we have a poor understanding of how the taxonomic and functional microbiome composition and the resulting ecological interactions affect pathogen growth and disease outbreak. Here, we combine DNA-based soil microbiome analysis with in vitro and in planta bioassays to show that competition for iron via secreted siderophore molecules is a good predictor of microbe-pathogen interactions and plant protection. We examined the ability of 2,150 individual bacterial members of 80 rhizosphere microbiomes, covering all major phylogenetic lineages, to suppress the bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum, a global phytopathogen capable of infecting various crops6,7. We found that secreted siderophores altered microbiome-pathogen interactions from complete pathogen suppression to strong facilitation. Rhizosphere microbiome members with growth-inhibitory siderophores could often suppress the pathogen in vitro as well as in natural and greenhouse soils, and protect tomato plants from infection. Conversely, rhizosphere microbiome members with growth-promotive siderophores were often inferior in competition and facilitated plant infection by the pathogen. Because siderophores are a chemically diverse group of molecules, with each siderophore type relying on a compatible receptor for iron uptake8-12, our results suggest that pathogen-suppressive microbiome members produce siderophores that the pathogen cannot use. Our study establishes a causal mechanistic link between microbiome-level competition for iron and plant protection and opens promising avenues to use siderophore-mediated interactions as a tool for microbiome engineering and pathogen control.

Dataset Information

Dispersal-competition tradeoff in microbiomes in the quest for land colonization.

Publications

Dispersal-competition tradeoff in microbiomes in the quest for land colonization.

Similar Datasets

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