RESUMEN

Plants are associated with highly diverse microbiota, which are crucial partners for their host carrying out important functions. Essentially, they are involved in nutrient supply, pathogen antagonism and protection of their host against different types of stress. The potential of microbial inoculants has been demonstrated in numerous studies, primarily under greenhouse conditions. However, field application, for example, as biofertilizer or biocontrol agent, is still a challenge as the applied microorganisms often are not provided in sufficiently high cell numbers, are rapidly outcompeted and cannot establish or require specific conditions to mediate the desired effects. We still have limited understanding on the fate of inoculants and on holobiont interactions, that is, interactions between plants, micro-biota and macro-biota and the environment, under field conditions. A better understanding will provide the basis for establishing models predicting the behaviour of strains or consortia and will help identifying microbiome members being able to establish and to mediate desired effects under certain conditions. Such models may also inform about the best management practices modulating microbiota in a desired way. Also, smart delivery approaches of microbial inoculants as well as the selection or breeding of plant genotypes better able to interact with microbiota may represent promising avenues.

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RESUMEN

Plant microbiota are the subject of new product developments, primarily aimed at improving plant health, nutrition, and stress resilience. However, current application of microbials in the field faces multiple challenges and we propose that multiple aspects need to be considered, for example, understanding the complexity and ecological behaviour of natural microbiota.

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The microbial component of healthy seeds - the seed microbiome - appears to be inherited between plant generations and can dynamically influence germination, plant performance, and survival. As such, methods to optimize the seed microbiomes of major crops could have far-reaching implications for plant breeding and crop improvement to enhance agricultural food, feed, and fiber production. Here, we describe a new approach to modulate seed microbiomes of elite crop seed embryos and concomitantly design the traits to be mediated by seed microbiomes. Specifically, we discovered that by introducing the endophyte Paraburkholderia phytofirmans PsJN to the flowers of parent plants we could drive its inclusion in progeny seed microbiomes, thereby inducing vertical inheritance to the offspring generation. We demonstrated the introduction of PsJN to seeds of monocot and dicot plant species and the consequential modifications to seed microbiome composition and growth traits in wheat, illustrating the potential role of novel seed-based microbiomes in determining plant traits.

RESUMEN

The plant holobiont comprises the plant and its associated microbiota, which interact with each other and determine holobiont functioning and plant performance. We have started to understand the complexity of the involved microorganisms and their interactions, however, we need more research on plant-microbiome interactions to understand holobiont functioning. By 2020 we expect that our knowledge on these interactions will have considerably increased facilitating crop management practices based on the interactions of the plant holobiont.

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