Root Exudation of Phytochemicals in Arabidopsis Follows Specific Patterns That Are Developmentally Programmed and Correlate with Soil Microbial Functions

By J. Chaparro, D. Badri, M. G. Bakker, A. Sugiyama, Daniel K. Manter, Jorge M. Vivanco. PLoS ONE, 2013

607 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Plant roots constantly secrete compounds into the soil to interact with neighboring organisms presumably to gain certain functional advantages at different stages of development. Accordingly, it has been hypothesized that the phytochemical composition present in the root exudates changes over the course of the lifespan of a plant. Here, root exudates of in vitro grown Arabidopsis plants were collected at different developmental stages and analyzed using GC-MS. Principle component analysis revealed that the composition of root exudates varied at each developmental stage. Cumulative secretion levels of sugars and sugar alcohols were higher in early time points and decreased through development. In contrast, the cumulative secretion levels of amino acids and phenolics increased over time. The expression in roots of genes involved in biosynthesis and transportation of compounds represented in the root exudates were consistent with patterns of root exudation. Correlation analyses were performed of the in vitro root exudation patterns with the functional capacity of the rhizosphere microbiome to metabolize these compounds at different developmental stages of Arabidopsis grown in natural soils. Pyrosequencing of rhizosphere mRNA revealed strong correlations (p<0.05) between microbial functional genes involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates, amino acids and secondary metabolites with the corresponding compounds released by the roots at particular stages of plant development. In summary, our results suggest that the root exudation process of phytochemicals follows a developmental pattern that is genetically programmed.

Subfields: Molecular Biology, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ecd8f93bb154686c540f070f851de4dd02ec2b6e

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Citations in the corpus

Plant–soil feedbacks: connecting ecosystem ecology and evolution (2016, background): “Root exudates structure rhizosphere communities by providing carbohydrate sources and functioning as signalling molecules (Chaparro et al. 2013; Dighton 2014; Herrera Paredes & Lebeis 2016).”
The plant microbiome (2013, background): “The composition of root exu dates can vary between plant species and cultivars [38,39], and with plant age and developmental stage [40-42].”
Exploring interactions of plant microbiomes (2014, result): “A more intimate interaction was shown in the study of Chaparro et al. (2013), where the microbiome was responsible for the composition of exudates released by the plant roots.”
Potassium solubilizing bacteria (KSB):: Mechanisms, promotion of plant growth, and future prospects A review (2017, background): “…signals, plants can effectively communicate with the rhizosphere microorganisms, while their associated microbes may establish an efficient associative symbiosis with plants by triggering host functional signals (e.g., microbial chemotaxis and colonization) (Chaparro et al., 2013; Ma et al., 2016).”
Rhizosphere microbiome assemblage is affected by plant development (2013, methodology): “…through plant development To determine whether root exudation potentially mediates the functions carried out by the rhizosphere microbiome, we correlated the 81 unique and significant transcripts with the compounds released as root exudates (from Chaparro et al. (2013); see Supplementary Table S4).”
Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria and root system functioning (2013, background): “The corresponding microbial community associated to plant roots can be referred to as the rhizo-microbiome (Chaparro et al., 2013).”
Forest Soil Bacteria: Diversity, Involvement in Ecosystem Processes, and Response to Global Change (2017, background): “The quantity and quality of exudates select for specific microbial communities and the expression of specific genes and may prime the decomposition of recalcitrant organic matter (133, 134).”
Disentangling mechanisms that mediate the balance between stochastic and deterministic processes in microbial succession (2015, background): “This frequent tidal regimen may promote a dynamic environment with many opportunities for successful immigration (dispersal followed by establishment).”