Globally consistent response of plant microbiome diversity across hosts and continents to soil nutrients and herbivores

发布日期：2023-06-25

Author：美国明尼苏达大学Elizabeth T. Borer团队

Abstract：All multicellular organisms host a diverse microbiome composed of microbial pathogens, mutualists, and commensals, and changes in microbiome diversity or composition can alter host fitness and function. Nonetheless, we lack a general understanding of the drivers of microbiome diversity, in part because it is regulated by concurrent processes spanning scales from global to local. Global-scale environmental gradients can determine variation in microbiome diversity among sites, however an individual host’s microbiome also may reflect its local micro-environment. We fill this knowledge gap by experimentally manipulating two potential mediators of plant microbiome diversity (soil nutrient supply and herbivore density) at 23 grassland sites spanning global-scale gradients in soil nutrients, climate, and plant biomass. Here we show that leaf-scale microbiome diversity in unmanipulated plots depended on the total microbiome diversity at each site, which was highest at sites with high soil nutrients and plant biomass. We also found that experimentally adding soil nutrients and excluding herbivores produced concordant results across sites, increasing microbiome diversity by increasing plant biomass, which created a shaded microclimate. This demonstration of consistent responses of microbiome diversity across a wide range of host species and environmental conditions suggests the possibility of a general, predictive understanding of microbiome diversity.

在跨越土壤养分、气候和植物生物量的全球尺度梯度的23个草原地点，通过实验操纵植物微生物组多样性的两个潜在媒介（土壤养分供应和植食性动物密度）。科研人员在此表明，未被操纵的地块的叶子规模的微生物组多样性取决于每个地点的总的微生物组多样性，在土壤养分和植物生物量高的地点是最高的。科研人员还发现，通过实验增加土壤养分和排除植食性动物，在不同的地点产生了一致的结果，通过增加植物生物量来增加微生物组的多样性，这创造了一个阴暗的小气候。这种在广泛的宿主物种和环境条件下对微生物组多样性的一致反应的证明，表明有可能对微生物组多样性有一个普遍的、可预测的理解。

Source：https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39179-w