Abstract:
Domestication of plant species has substantially contributed to human civilization,
but also caused a strong decrease in the genetic diversity of modern crop
cultivars by selecting for high-yielding dwarf crops which are reliant on
unsustainable levels of inorganic fertilizer. This transition from natural to
agricultural systems has played an important role in the development of
agriculture over the last 10,000 years but may have affected the ability of plants
to establish beneficial associations with rhizosphere microbes.
Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are essential for plant health and
fitness and play an important role in the sustainable intensification of agriculture.
This thesis assesses the impacts of domestication on beneficial plant-microbial
interactions in wheat with a view to developing robust microbial inocula for
enhanced crop growth.
Culture dependent and independent approaches were used to explore the
influence of widely used nitrogen-phosphate-potassium (NPK) fertilizer on the
abundance of wheat rhizobacterial genera with plant growth-promoting traits.
Putative plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) were reduced in fertilized
wheat plants. Approximately 1,500 bacterial isolates were amassed from the
rhizosphere and rhizoplane of Cadenza wheat plants grown in low nutrient soil
either supplemented with or without fertilizer in pot greenhouse experiments,
representing an inherently more controlled design than many literature field
studies. PGPR were taxonomically identified by Sanger sequencing of the 16S
rRNA gene and functionally characterized using single colony functional
bioassays (nitrogen, phosphate, potassium, iron, and zinc solubilization) and
subsequently identified in high throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence
derived culture-independent community datasets, which revealed a significantly
lower abundance of nutrient-solubilizing rhizobacteria in fertilized plants. The
same methods were applied to rhizoplane samples from 19 ancestral and
domesticated wheat genotypes grown in the same conditions which resulted in
isolation of approximately 15,000 bacterial isolates. Notably, there was a
significantly lower abundance of PGPR isolated from unplanted control pots (bulk
soil) compared to plants and no difference between fertilization conditions.
Moreover, differences in the abundance of PGPR under contrasting fertilization
conditions were more pronounced in domesticated wheat, which we hypothesize
is due to a loss of plant-microbe signalling pathways as the wheat genome
underwent expansion. Key genera differentially more abundant in non-fertilized
wheats included members of the phylum Cyanobacteria (Nostoc) and
Proteobacteria (Bradyrhizobium, Pseudomonas) compared to fertilized wheats
which were richer in Actinobacteria (Arthrobacter, Catenulispora, Leifsonia, and
Streptomyces).
Introduction of the Reduced height (Rht) genes during the Green Revolution has
been hypothesized to reduce PGPR selection due to their influence on the plant
hormone gibberellin (GA). 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed a
markedly different rhizosphere microbiome in severe Cadenza wheat Rht dwarf
mutants which became more pronounced with mineral fertilizer addition. There
was a higher differential abundance in Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi and
Gemmatimonadetes, phyla more commonly associated with bulk soil, in Rht
mutant cultivars compared with a higher differential abundance of Bacteroidetes,
Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, phyla more commonly associated with plant
growth promotion, in wildtype Cadenza wheat.
The research presented in this thesis contributes to our understanding of the
impact domestication has had on plant-microbe interactions in the presence and
absence of agriculturally important but potentially environmentally deleterious
chemicals, as well as presenting a method for functional characterization of
microbiomes. This knowledge will benefit the development of more targeted
ecologically benign biofertilization strategies.