The Use of Synthetic Microbial Communities (SynComs) to Improve Plant Health

Despite the numerous benefits plants receive from probiotics, maintaining consistent results across applications is still a challenge. Cultivation-independent methods associated with reduced sequencing costs have considerably improved the overall understanding of microbial ecology in the plant envir...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Phytopathology Vol. 113; no. 8; pp. 1369 - 1379
Main Authors:	Martins, Samuel J, Pasche, Josephine M, Silva, Hiago A, Selten, Gijs G, Savastano, Noah, Abreu, Lucas, Bais, Harsh, Garrett, Karen A, Kraisitudomsook, Nattapol, Pieterse, Corne M J, Cernava, Tomislav
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States 01-08-2023
Subjects:	Symbiosis Biotechnology Climate Change Computational Biology Food Safety Disease Control and Pest Management Biological Control Microbiome
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Despite the numerous benefits plants receive from probiotics, maintaining consistent results across applications is still a challenge. Cultivation-independent methods associated with reduced sequencing costs have considerably improved the overall understanding of microbial ecology in the plant environment. As a result, now it is possible to engineer a consortium of microbes aiming for improved plant health. Such synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) contain carefully chosen microbial species to produce the desired microbiome function. Microbial biofilm formation, production of secondary metabolites and ability to induce plant resistance are some of the microbial traits to take into consideration when designing SynComs. Plant-associated microbial communities are not assembled randomly. Ecological theories suggest that these communities have a defined phylogenetic organization structured by general community assembly rules. Using machine learning, we can study these rules and target microbial functions that generate desired plant phenotypes. Well-structured assemblages are more likely to lead to a stable SynCom that thrives under environmental stressors, as compared to the classical selection of single microbial activities or taxonomy. However, ensuring microbial colonization and long-term plant phenotype stability are still some of the challenges to overcome with SynComs, as the synthetic community may change over time with microbial horizontal gene transfer and retained mutations. Here, we explored the advances made in SynCom research regarding plant health focusing on bacteria, as they are the most dominant microbial form compared with other members of the microbiome and the most commonly found in SynCom studies.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0031-949X 1943-7684
DOI:	10.1094/PHYTO-01-23-0016-IA