Endophyte microbiome diversity in micropropagated Atriplex canescens and Atriplex torreyi var griffithsii

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 6; no. 3; p. e17693
• Main Authors: Lucero, Mary E, Unc, Adrian, Cooke, Peter, Dowd, Scot, Sun, Shulei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 17.03.2011; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Agriculture; Ascomycetes; Ascomycota; Atriplex; Atriplex - cytology; Atriplex - growth & development; Atriplex - microbiology; Atriplex - ultrastructure; Atriplex canescens; Atriplex torreyi; Bacteria; Bacteria - growth & development; Bacteria - isolation & purification; Base Sequence; Bayes Theorem; Biodiversity; Biofilms; Biology; Biotechnology; Callus; Coding; Confocal microscopy; DNA, Intergenic - genetics; Ecology; Endophytes; Evolution; Fungi; Fungi - cytology; Fungi - genetics; Fungi - growth & development; Fungi - isolation & purification; Germination; Grasses; Homology; Leaves; Metabolism; Metagenome; Microbiomes; Microorganisms; Microscopy; Molecular Sequence Data; Natural products; Next-generation sequencing; Physiological aspects; Plant cells; Plant growth; Primers; Regeneration - physiology; Ribosomal DNA; Roots; Seeds; Seeds - cytology; Seeds - microbiology; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Species diversity; Taxa; Testing laboratories; Trends; California; New Mexico; United States > US; North America
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0017693

Microbial diversity associated with micropropagated Atriplex species was assessed using microscopy, isolate culturing, and sequencing. Light, electron, and confocal microscopy revealed microbial cells in aseptically regenerated leaves and roots. Clone libraries and tag-encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing (TEFAP) analysis amplified sequences from callus homologous to diverse fungal and bacterial taxa. Culturing isolated some seed borne endophyte taxa which could be readily propagated apart from the host. Microbial cells were observed within biofilm-like residues associated with plant cell surfaces and intercellular spaces. Various universal primers amplified both plant and microbial sequences, with different primers revealing different patterns of fungal diversity. Bacterial and fungal TEFAP followed by alignment with sequences from curated databases revealed 7 bacterial and 17 ascomycete taxa in A. canescens, and 5 bacterial taxa in A. torreyi. Additional diversity was observed among isolates and clone libraries. Micropropagated Atriplex retains a complex, intimately associated microbiome which includes diverse strains well poised to interact in manners that influence host physiology. Microbiome analysis was facilitated by high throughput sequencing methods, but primer biases continue to limit recovery of diverse sequences from even moderately complex communities.