The use of a synthetic community rescues growth of Arabidopsis thaliana during iron deficiency in a siderophore independent manner
(2022) MOBM02 20221Degree Projects in Molecular Biology
- Abstract
- Plants can benefit from the naturally occurring plant-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere. Understanding the mechanisms driving these beneficial interactions can improve plant development and resilience. Here, it was attempted to use a Synthetic Community (SynCom) to rescue the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana plants during iron deficiency stress. This stress is caused by the bio-un-availability of iron at alkaline pH and was recreated using alkaline Hoagland media. The full SynCom collection consisted of known bacterial strains that were isolated from the rhizosphere of A. thaliana grown in natural soil. The growth effect of individual strains was first characterized as well as their ability to secrete iron mobilizing siderophores.... (More)
- Plants can benefit from the naturally occurring plant-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere. Understanding the mechanisms driving these beneficial interactions can improve plant development and resilience. Here, it was attempted to use a Synthetic Community (SynCom) to rescue the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana plants during iron deficiency stress. This stress is caused by the bio-un-availability of iron at alkaline pH and was recreated using alkaline Hoagland media. The full SynCom collection consisted of known bacterial strains that were isolated from the rhizosphere of A. thaliana grown in natural soil. The growth effect of individual strains was first characterized as well as their ability to secrete iron mobilizing siderophores. Based on the gathered information of individual strains, several SynComs with different bacterial combinations were prepared. Two SynComs showed growth rescue of iron deficiency stressed plants. Using these SynComs, a standardized setup has been established to study the underlying mechanisms of beneficial plant-microbe interactions during iron stress. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- The growth rescue of iron deprived plants by bacteria
The bio-un-availability of iron is a major problem in agriculture worldwide. Iron deprived plants will be less developed and depict stress symptoms like chlorosis, where the normal green color turns white. To overcome this iron deprivation, some plants can modify the microbial composition around their roots and restore normal growth. However, the specific mechanisms behind this growth recovery are largely unknown.
The central aim of this project was to create a standardized setup on which the plant-microbe interaction of Arabidopsis thaliana during iron deprived conditions can be screened. This setup made use of a microbial synthetic community (SynCom), which was derived from the... (More) - The growth rescue of iron deprived plants by bacteria
The bio-un-availability of iron is a major problem in agriculture worldwide. Iron deprived plants will be less developed and depict stress symptoms like chlorosis, where the normal green color turns white. To overcome this iron deprivation, some plants can modify the microbial composition around their roots and restore normal growth. However, the specific mechanisms behind this growth recovery are largely unknown.
The central aim of this project was to create a standardized setup on which the plant-microbe interaction of Arabidopsis thaliana during iron deprived conditions can be screened. This setup made use of a microbial synthetic community (SynCom), which was derived from the PMI-group’s SynCom culture collection. The full SynCom was isolated from the root surface of A. thaliana plants and was therefore representative for the microbiome. Two different growth media were composed that could recreate growth conditions in which iron was biologically available and unavailable (avFe and unFe media respectively). On these media the SynCom was then co-inoculated together with plants, evaluating the growth rescuing ability of the SynCom.
The co-inoculation with the full SynCom culture collection did not yield any growth rescue. Because of this, it was attempted to alter the composition using a functional approach. The siderophore-releasing ability of bacteria was considered for this, as these chelate Fe making it available in the media. All bacteria were grown separately on media containing an iron binding dye-complex, which changes colour upon siderophore release of a growing colony. This demonstrated that certain SynCom strains did and some did not release siderophores.
Growth rescue is siderophore-independent
To alter the SynCom composition even more effectively, the growth effect of individual bacteria during iron deficient conditions was screened as well. Both siderophore releasing and non-releasing bacteria were tested, yielding a beneficial growth effect for strains of both categories. As a consequence, no correlation could be observed between growth rescue and siderophore release, showing that siderophores are not the driving factor of growth rescue.
Considering the previously obtained results, three new SynCom compositions were designed. The co-inoculation with two of these compositions resulted in increased shoot weights and thus the growth rescue of A. thaliana plants on unFe media (Figure 1). These results present a standardized combination of bacteria and media on which several plant-microbe interactions can be screened in the future. The resulting knowledge can subsequently help to unravel the complex mechanisms of how plants interact with their microbiome.
Master’s Degree Project in Molecular Biology, 30 credits 2022, Department of Biology, Lund University, work was performed at Utrecht University
Advisor: Melissa Uribe Acosta
Utrecht University, PMI group (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9103260
- author
- Elsinga, Marten
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MOBM02 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 9103260
- date added to LUP
- 2022-11-16 15:22:27
- date last changed
- 2022-11-16 15:22:27
@misc{9103260,
abstract = {{Plants can benefit from the naturally occurring plant-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere. Understanding the mechanisms driving these beneficial interactions can improve plant development and resilience. Here, it was attempted to use a Synthetic Community (SynCom) to rescue the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana plants during iron deficiency stress. This stress is caused by the bio-un-availability of iron at alkaline pH and was recreated using alkaline Hoagland media. The full SynCom collection consisted of known bacterial strains that were isolated from the rhizosphere of A. thaliana grown in natural soil. The growth effect of individual strains was first characterized as well as their ability to secrete iron mobilizing siderophores. Based on the gathered information of individual strains, several SynComs with different bacterial combinations were prepared. Two SynComs showed growth rescue of iron deficiency stressed plants. Using these SynComs, a standardized setup has been established to study the underlying mechanisms of beneficial plant-microbe interactions during iron stress.}},
author = {{Elsinga, Marten}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The use of a synthetic community rescues growth of Arabidopsis thaliana during iron deficiency in a siderophore independent manner}},
year = {{2022}},
}