Version 1
: Received: 1 July 2024 / Approved: 1 July 2024 / Online: 2 July 2024 (14:49:01 CEST)
How to cite:
Majeed, A.; Liu, J.; Knight, A. J.; Pajerowska-Mukhtar, K. M.; Mukhtar, M. S. Bacterial Communities Associated with the Leaves and
the Roots of salt marsh plants of Daphne, Alabama, USA. Preprints2024, 2024070177. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0177.v1
Majeed, A.; Liu, J.; Knight, A. J.; Pajerowska-Mukhtar, K. M.; Mukhtar, M. S. Bacterial Communities Associated with the Leaves and
the Roots of salt marsh plants of Daphne, Alabama, USA. Preprints 2024, 2024070177. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0177.v1
Majeed, A.; Liu, J.; Knight, A. J.; Pajerowska-Mukhtar, K. M.; Mukhtar, M. S. Bacterial Communities Associated with the Leaves and
the Roots of salt marsh plants of Daphne, Alabama, USA. Preprints2024, 2024070177. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0177.v1
APA Style
Majeed, A., Liu, J., Knight, A. J., Pajerowska-Mukhtar, K. M., & Mukhtar, M. S. (2024). Bacterial Communities Associated with the Leaves and
the Roots of salt marsh plants of Daphne, Alabama, USA. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0177.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Majeed, A., Karolina M. Pajerowska-Mukhtar and M. Shahid Mukhtar. 2024 "Bacterial Communities Associated with the Leaves and
the Roots of salt marsh plants of Daphne, Alabama, USA" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0177.v1
Abstract
Salt marshes are highly dynamic and biologically diverse ecosystems that serve as natural habitats for numerous salt-tolerant plants (halophytes). We investigated the bacterial communities associated with the roots and leaves of plants growing in the coastal salt marshes of the Daphne Bay area in Alabama, United States. We compared external (epiphytic) and internal (endophytic) communities of both leaf and root plant organs. Using 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing methods, we identified 10 bacterial phyla and 59 different amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) at the genus level. Bacterial strains belonging to the phyla Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes were highly abundant in both leaf and root samples. At the genus level, sequences of the genus Pseudomonas were common across all four sample types, with the highest abundance found in the leaf endophytic community. Additionally, Pantoea was found to be dominant in leaf tissue compared to roots. Our study revealed that plant habitat (internal vs. external for leaves and roots) was a determinant of the bacterial community structure. Co-occurrence network analyses enabled us to discern the intricate characteristics of bacterial taxa. Our network analysis revealed varied levels of ASV complexity in the epiphytic networks of roots and leaves compared to the endophytic networks. Overall, this study advances our understanding of the intricate composition of the bacterial microbiota in habitats (epiphytic and endophytic) and organs (leaf and root) of coastal salt marsh plants and suggests that plants might recruit habitat- and organ-specific bacteria to enhance their tolerance to salt stress.
Keywords
Metagenome; 16S; coastal salt marsh; salt stress; plants
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
