title: Bacterial endophyte communities of three agricultural important grass species differ in their response towards management regimes.
abstract: Endophytic bacteria are critical for plant growth and health. However, compositional and functional responses of bacterial endophyte communities towards agricultural practices are still poorly understood. Hence, we analyzed the influence of fertilizer application and mowing frequency on bacterial endophytes in three agriculturally important grass species. For this purpose, we examined bacterial endophytic communities in aerial plant parts of Dactylis glomerata L., Festuca rubra L., and Lolium perenne L. by pyrotag sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes over two consecutive years. Although management regimes influenced endophyte communities, observed responses were grass species-specific. This might be attributed to several bacteria specifically associated with a single grass species. We further predicted functional profiles from obtained 16S rRNA data. These profiles revealed that predicted abundances of genes involved in plant growth promotion or nitrogen metabolism differed between grass species and between management regimes. Moreover, structural and functional community patterns showed no correlation to each other indicating that plant species-specific selection of endophytes is driven by functional rather than phylogenetic traits. The unique combination of 16S rRNA data and functional profiles provided a holistic picture of compositional and functional responses of bacterial endophytes in agricultural relevant grass species towards management practices.
authors.affiliation: Section of Agricultural Entomology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 6, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wemheuer
authors.affiliation: Department of Genomic and Applied Microbiology and Göttingen Genomics Laboratory, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.affiliation: Molecular Phytopathology and Mycotoxin Research, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 6, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Karlovsky
authors.affiliation: Department of Genomic and Applied Microbiology and Göttingen Genomics Laboratory, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Daniel
authors.affiliation: Section of Agricultural Entomology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 6, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vidal
authors.affiliation: Department of Genomic and Applied Microbiology and Göttingen Genomics Laboratory, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wemheuer
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D035261:Plant Components, Aerial / Q000382:microbiology; D063245:Plant Development; D006109:Poaceae / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology*; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D013045:Species Specificity; D013559:Symbiosis
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D009584:Nitrogen