Shifts in plant–microbe interactions over community succession and their effects on plant resistance to herbivores
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Abstract
Soil microorganisms can influence the development of complex plant phenotypes, including
resistance to herbivores. This microbiome-mediated plasticity may be particularly important
for plant species that persist in environments with drastically changing herbivore pressure, for
example over community succession.
We established a 15-yr gradient of old-field succession to examine the herbivore resistance
and rhizosphere microbial communities of Solidago altissima plants in a large-scale field
experiment. To assess the functional effects of these successional microbial shifts, we inoculated
S. altissima plants with microbiomes from the 2nd, 6th and 15th successional years in a
glasshouse and compared their herbivore resistance.
The resistance of S. altissima plants to herbivores changed over succession, with concomitant
shifts in the rhizosphere microbiome. Late succession microbiomes conferred the
strongest herbivore resistance to S. altissima plants in a glasshouse experiment, paralleling the
low levels of herbivory observed in the oldest communities in the field.
While many factors change over succession and may contribute to the shifts in rhizosphere
communities and herbivore resistance we observed, our results indicated that soil microbial
shifts alone can alter plants’ interactions with herbivores. Our findings suggest that changes in
soil microbial communities over succession can play an important role in enhancing plant resistance
to herbivores.
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We thank Lynn Johnson of the Cornell Statistical Consulting
Unit for statistical advice; Aino Kalske, Alex Chaut a, and Alex
Stotter for help with data collection; and Maria Gannett and
Liang Cheng for help with microbial DNA sequence processing;
and four anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments
on the manuscript. This research was funded in part by a Sustainable
Biodiversity Fund grant from the Atkinson Center for a
Sustainable Future, Andrew W. Mellon student grants from Cornell,
a Schmittau-Novak small grant from the School of Integrative
Plant Science at Cornell, and a grant from Sigma Xi to
MMH, as well as grants from NIFA Multistate NE-1501 and
New Phytologist to AK. MMH was supported in part by a Horton-
Hallowell Graduate Fellowship from Wellesley College and a
Sellew Family Fellowship from Cornell.
Date Issued
2020
Publisher
New Phytologist
Keywords
above–belowground interactions, herbivory, microbiome, rhizosphere, soil legacy effects, Solidago altissima, succession, Trirhabda virgata.
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Government Document
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CC0 1.0 Universal
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article