Manzanares-Dauleux, M. J. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2020

Soil microbiota influences clubroot disease by modulating Plasmodiophora brassicae and Brassica napus transcriptomes

The contribution of surrounding plant microbiota to disease development has led to the postulation of the pathobiome concept, which represents the interaction between the pathogen, the host-plant, and the associated biotic microbial community, resulting or not in plant disease. The structure, composition and assembly of different plant-associated microbial communities (soil, rhizosphere, leaf, root) are more and more described, both in healthy and infected plants. A major goal is now to shift from descriptive to functional studies of the interaction, in order to gain a mechanistic understanding of how microbes act on plant growth and defense, and/or on pathogen development and pathogenicity. The aim herein is to understand how the soil microbial environment may influence the functions of a pathogen and its pathogenesis, as well as the molecular response of the plant to the infection, with a dual-RNAseq transcriptomics approach. We address this question using Brassica napus and Plasmodiophora brassicae, the pathogen responsible for clubroot. A time-course experiment was conducted to study interactions between P. brassicae, two B. napus genotypes, and three soils harboring High (H), Medium (M) or Low (L) microbiota diversities and displaying different levels of richness and diversity. The soil microbial diversity levels had an impact on disease development (symptom levels and pathogen quantity). The P. brassicae and B. napus transcriptional patterns were modulated by these microbial diversities, and the modulations were dependent of the host genotype plant and the kinetic time. The functional analysis of gene expressions allowed the identification of pathogen and plant-host functions potentially involved in the change of plant disease level, such as pathogenicity-related genes (NUDIX effector) in P. brassicae and plant defense-related genes (glucosinolate metabolism) in B. napus. Author summaryThe untapped soil microbiota diversity can influence plant tolerance and resistance to several pests. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the plant / pests / microbiota interaction is required to contribute to the improvement of new plant protection methods taking into account sustainability, respect for the environment, and low input utilization. Our work showed that in the Plasmodiophora brassicae / Brassica napus pathosystem, the soil microbiota diversity modulated the disease symptom level and the pathogen development. We discovered that soil microbial composition modulated both the pathogen and the plant expression genes profiles. On one hand, the pathogen transcriptome was mainly modulated by the microbial communities at the end of infection, when the pathogen infects a susceptible plant genotype, and the expression of genes potentially involved in growth and pathogenicity was affected. On the other hand, the plant transcriptome was more modulated by the microbial communities at the early step of infection, in the most resistant genotype and the expression of genes potentially involved in defense was affected. This study provides new insights into the molecular basis of soil microbiota-mediated modulation of plant pest diseases.

pathology↗

bioRxiv2019

Natural epiallelic variation is associated with quantitative resistance to the pathogen Plasmodiophora brassicae

Clubroot caused by the protist Plasmodiophora brassicae is a major disease affecting cultivated Brassicaceae. Here, we uncover the existence of a natural epigenetic variation that is associated with partial resistance to clubroot in Arabidopsis, by using QTL fine mapping followed by extensive DNA sequence and methylation analyses. We show that at QTL Pb-At5.2, DNA methylation variation is extensive across accessions and strictly correlates with expression variation of the two neighboring genes At5g47260 and At5g47280, which encode NLR-immune receptors. Moreover, these natural variants are stably inherited and are not consistently associated with any nucleotide variation. These findings suggest a direct role for epigenetic variation in quantitative resistance of plants to pathogen attacks.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2018

Temporal dynamics of bacterial and fungal communities during the infection of Brassica rapa roots by the protist Plasmodiophora brassicae

The temporal dynamics of rhizosphere and root microbiota composition was compared between healthy and infected Chinese cabbage plants by the pathogen Plasmodiophora brassicae. When inoculated with P. brassicae, disease was measured at five sampling dates from early root hair infection to late gall development. The first symptoms of clubroot disease appeared 14 days after inoculation (DAI) and increased drastically between 14 and 35 DAI. The structure of microbial communities associated to rhizosphere soil and root from healthy and inoculated plants was characterized through high-throughput DNA sequencing of bacterial (16S) and fungal (18S) molecular markers and compared at each sampling date. In healthy plants, Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes bacterial phyla dominated the rhizosphere and root microbiota of Chinese cabbage. Rhizosphere bacterial communities contained higher abundances of Actinobacteria and Firmicutes compared to the roots. Moreover, a drastic shift of fungal communities of healthy plants occurred between the two last sampling dates, especially in plant roots, where most of Ascomycota fungi dominated until they were replaced by a fungus assigned to the Chytridiomycota phylum. Parasitic invasion by P. brassicae disrupted the rhizosphere and root-associated community assembly at a late step during the root secondary cortical infection stage of clubroot disease. At this stage, Flavisolibacter and Streptomyces in the rhizosphere, and Bacillus in the roots, were drastically less abundant upon parasite invasion. Rhizosphere of plants colonized by P. brassicae was significantly more invaded by the Chytridiomycota fungus, which could reflect a mutualistic relationship in this compartment between these two microorganisms.

ecology↗