Min-Jung Kwak, Hyun Gi Kong, Kihyuck Choi, Soon-Kyeong Kwon, Ju Yeon Song, Jidam Lee, Pyeong An Lee, Soo Yeon Choi, Minseok Seo, Hyoung Ju Lee, Eun Joo Jung, Hyein Park, Nazish Roy, Heebal Kim, Myeong Min Lee, Edward M Rubin, Seon-Woo Lee, Jihyun F Kim
Tomato variety Hawaii 7996 is resistant to the soil-borne pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum, whereas the Moneymaker variety is susceptible to the pathogen. To evaluate whether plant-associated microorganisms have a role in disease resistance, we analyzed the rhizosphere microbiomes of both varieties in a mesocosm experiment. Microbiome structures differed between the two cultivars. Transplantation of rhizosphere microbiota from resistant plants suppressed disease symptoms in susceptible plants. Comparative analyses of rhizosphere metagenomes from resistant and susceptible plants enabled the identification and assembly of a flavobacterial genome that was far more abundant in the resistant plant rhizosphere microbiome than in that of the susceptible plant...
October 8, 2018: Nature Biotechnology