title: Spatial scales of interactions among bacteria and between bacteria and the leaf surface.
abstract: Microbial life on plant leaves is characterized by a multitude of interactions between leaf colonizers and their environment. While the existence of many of these interactions has been confirmed, their spatial scale or reach often remained unknown. In this study, we applied spatial point pattern analysis to 244 distribution patterns of Pantoea agglomerans and Pseudomonas syringae on bean leaves. The results showed that bacterial colonizers of leaves interact with their environment at different spatial scales. Interactions among bacteria were often confined to small spatial scales up to 5-20 μm, compared to interactions between bacteria and leaf surface structures such as trichomes which could be observed in excess of 100 μm. Spatial point-pattern analyses prove a comprehensive tool to determine the different spatial scales of bacterial interactions on plant leaves and will help microbiologists to better understand the interplay between these interactions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecosystem Modelling, Büsgen-Institute, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 4, 37077 Göttingen, Germany desser@uni-goettingen.de.
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Esser
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8751, USA.
authors.forename: Johan H J
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Leveau
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecosystem Modelling, Büsgen-Institute, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 4, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Katrin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecosystem Modelling, Büsgen-Institute, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 4, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wiegand
mesh_terms: D017753:Ecosystem; D007887:Fabaceae / Q000382:microbiology*; D020636:Pantoea / Q000378:metabolism*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000382:microbiology*; D044224:Pseudomonas syringae / Q000378:metabolism*; D062206:Spatial Analysis
keywords: K-function; Pantoea; Phaseolus vulgaris; Pseudomonas; pair correlation function; phyllosphere