Abstract Detail



Symbioses: Plant, Animal, and Microbe Interactions

Scharnagl, Anna [1], Simms, Ellen [1].

Landscape-level mapping of the microbiome.

Recent interest and research into microbiomes across taxa has made it abundantly clear that there is a real need for large scale natural history studies of microbial diversity and distribution. In plants it has been shown that their microbial partners play key roles in everything from maintaining normal function and phenology, to potentially mediating adverse effects of climate change or disturbance, to being the source of (as yet) unknown pathogens as climate change alters the dynamics in these intricate and complex relationships. One direction this need has taken is in the search for a core microbiota, but these efforts are somewhat conflated by the split arguments for a taxonomically-defined core microbiota vs. a functionally-defined core microbiota, and both often lack distinct distribution data.
   This project seeks to combine recent efforts at mapping the phylodiversity of California with a survey of the microbial diversity in a community of plants found in coastal prairie that by definition of its habitat is confined to a narrow band along the coast (thus providing comparable points along a gradient). Tissue will be collected and assessed separately for microbial communities in leaf (a combined phyllo/endosphere) and root (rhizosphere) using 16s and ITS amplicon sequencing. Coastal prairie is a habitat susceptible to climate change as altered precipitation regimes and lower instance and duration of coastal fogs may enhance salt stress and drought, as well as increase vulnerability to pathogens. Much of this habitat also faces various levels of disturbance, from invasive species to coastal development, so are high risk areas. It also contains sites of high endemism, making it a target for conservation.
   The aim of this study is to contribute to our understanding of the distribution patterns of plant microbiomes and their relatedness to other distributions as part of a larger co-occurrence dataset.


1 - UC Berkeley, Integrative Biology, 3040 Valley Life Sciences Bldg., #3140, Berkeley, CA, 94720-3140, USA

Keywords:
microbiome
coastal prairie
climate change
distribution patterns.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: SYMB2, Symbioses: Plant, Animal, and Microbe Interactions II
Location: Virtual/Virtual
Date: Wednesday, July 29th, 2020
Time: 10:30 AM
Number: SYMB2003
Abstract ID:345
Candidate for Awards:None


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