A Microbiome Study Reveals Seasonal Variation in Endophytic Bacteria Among different Mulberry Cultivars

• Published in: Computational and structural biotechnology journal Vol. 17; pp. 1091 - 1100
• Main Authors: Ou, Ting, Xu, Wei-fang, Wang, Fei, Strobel, Gary, Zhou, Ze-yang, Xiang, Zhong-huai, Liu, Jia, Xie, Jie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.01.2019; Research Network of Computational and Structural Biotechnology; Elsevier
• Subjects: Endophytic bacteria; Microbial diversity; Mulberry cultivar; Seasonal variation; Microbial diversity; Endophytic bacteria; Seasonal variation; Mulberry cultivar
• ISSN: 2001-0370; 2001-0370
• DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2019.07.018

Knowledge of seasonal shifts in the bacterial community composition among different mulberry (Morus L.) cultivars will facilitate to develop the biocontrol phytopathogens strategy using endophytic bacteria. The present study investigated the endophytic bacterial communities of four mulberry cultivars that have different resistance to mulberry fruit sclerotiniosis using Illumina-based sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene fragment in spring and autumn. The results indicated that spring samples harbor higher bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs), α-diversity, and bacterial community complexity in comparison with autumn samples. The taxonomic composition analysis showed that the majority of endophytes were composed of Proteobacteria (genus level: Methylobaterium) and Actinobacteria in spring, while sequences classified as Proteobacteria (genus level: Pantoea and Pseudomonas) were abundant in autumn. Analysis of β-diversity also revealed endophytic bacteria were divided into two main groups by season. By comparison among different mulberry cultivars, we found that Pantoea, Methylobaterium, and Pseudomonas were the three major bacterial genera in all cultivars, while their relative abundances varied with cultivars and appeared no obvious relationship with resistance level of mulberry fruit sclerotiniosis. The complex correlation of the endophytic communities in susceptible mulberry cultivars was higher than that of the resistant cultivars. Overall, the findings suggested that season plays a key role in determining the mulberry endophytic bacterial communities, followed by host cultivar, and Proteobacteria was the predominant phylum in both seasons and different mulberry cultivars. [Display omitted] •Season played a key role in determining mulberry endophytic bacterial communities.•Mulberry endophytic bacterial variation was not obviously related with cultivars.•Mulberry recruited beneficial endophytes as potential biocontrol agents.