Abstract:
Artificial selection of microbial communities is of great significance in improving animal and plant health. However, there is still a lack of consistency in the reported results. We hypothesized that as long as the microbial community structure stabilizes during selection, artificial selection may provide desirable results. In a 10-generation artificial selection experiment involving 1,800 plants, we selected a microbiome that correlates with high or low leaf greenness, a proxy for plant health. The dynamic monitoring of rhizosphere microbiota showed that there were strong oscillations in community structure and no heritability of selected traits at the initial transition stage of five generations. In the
last five generations, the microbial community structure showed signs of stability, and the leaf greenness also showed heritability. The selection pressure was ineffective at first, but later succeeded in making the green index change in the desired direction, especially in the direction of high green values. We found a significant agreement between plant traits and the selected microbial community structure, highlighting two phylogenetically distinct microbial subcommunities associated with leaf greenness, whose abundance is clearly influenced by directed artificial selection. Therefore, understanding the stability of microbial community structure can help improve the reliability of artificial microbiota selection.
Page(s):
222-222
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Abstract Book on International Conference on Food and Applied Sciences (ICFAS-23) 3-5 August 23, Volume: 0, Issue: 0, Year: 2023
Keywords:
Heritability
,
Selection
,
stability
,
evolution
,
Microbiome breeding