Yang Liu, Da Li, Jiejun Qi, Ziheng Peng, Weimin Chen, Gehong Wei, Shuo Jiao.Stochastic processes shape the biogeographic variations in core bacterial communities between aerial and belowground compartments of common bean

Stochastic processes shape the biogeographic variations in core bacterial communities between aerial and belowground compartments of common bean

Yang Liu, Da Li, Jiejun Qi, Ziheng Peng, Weimin Chen, Gehong Wei, Shuo Jiao

Environmental Microbiology

DOI:10.1111/1462-2920.15227

Abstract

Although studies of biogeography in soil bacterial communities have attracted considerable attention, the generality of these patterns along with assembly processes and underlying drivers are poorly understood in the inner tissues of plants. Plant tissues provide unique ecological habitats for microorganisms, which play an essential role in plant performance. Here, we compared core bacterial communities among five soil-plant associated compartments of common bean across five sampling sites in China. Neutral and null modeling consistently suggested that stochastic processes dominated the core community assembly processes and escalated from the belowground compartments to the inner tissues of aerial plant parts. The multiple distance-decay relationships also varied and had flattened patterns in the stem endosphere, which were shaped by distinct environmental factors in each compartment. Coexistence patterns also varied in topological features, in addition with the sparsest networks in the stem endosphere resulted from the interaction with the stochastic processes. This study considerably expanded our understanding of various biogeographic patterns, assembly processes, and the underlying mechanisms of core bacterial communities between aerial and belowground compartments of common bean. That will provide a scientific basis for the reasonable regulation of core bacterial consortia to get better plant performance. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.