Transmission mode shapes host specialization of the phyllosphere microbiome
This study investigated the influence of transmission the assembly of leaf-associated microbiomes. The first part of the study was a microbiome passaging experiment in which microbiomes were passaged on tomato, pepper, or bean plants in the greenhouse. The second part of the study was a microbiome transplant experiment in which microbiomes harvested from the first study were transplanted onto either the host species from which they came, or novel host plant species, including canola, sorghum, and corn. The third part involved applying microbiomes from the first part to tomato hosts in coalescence treatments. Lastly, in the 4th part, leaf transcriptional responses of tomato plants to experimental microbiome inoculations were surveyed. In studies 1-3 cases, phyllosphere bacterial communities were assessed by removing the bacteria from the leaf surface, performing DNA extraction, and then performing 16S rRNA gene (region V5-7) community sequencing on the Miseq platform. In the 4th part, leaf transcriptional data from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) were obtained by flash freezing leaf samples, performing RNA extraction, and then sequencing on the Illumina NovaSeq6000 platform.