23 Jan 2025 14:00 CET - Microbiome innovations to support plant and one health

Gabriele Berg Institute of Environmental Biotechnology, Graz University of Technology, Austria; Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam, Germany; Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Germany; @ubt.tugraz.at

Plant microbiomes are key components for ecosystem health in all terrestrial ecosystems including agriculture. The plant microbiota, which consist of bacteria, archaea, protists and fungi, is vertically transmitted by seeds and replenished horizontally from soil (Berg et al. Microbiome 8, 2020). All plants are holobionts and form a functional unit with its microbiome. Plant diversification and co-evolution shaped the plant microbiome and designed their specific composition and functional interplay including natural biocontrol of pathogens. Human activities in the Anthropocene, and especially intense agriculture, are linked to a significant shift of diversity and evenness of the plant microbiota. This shift is characterized by a decrease of host specificity and symbionts, and an increase of r-strategic microbes, pathogens, and hypermutators. Findings from plant microbiome research over the past 20 years clearly call for research and innovation for plant’s health (Berg & Cernava, Microbiome 10, 2022).

Plant microbiomes can be managed either directly by applying (i) microbiome transplants, (ii) microbes with beneficial properties, or (iii) microbiota-active metabolites, or indirectly by changing environmental conditions in a way that microbiomes also shift their structure and function from dysbiosis into a healthy state. Examples for the different strategies for plant protection will be presented, and risk associated with the technology will be discussed. Beyond, the plant microbiome is connected across systems and crucial for human and planetary health issues as well. This will be discussed in frame of the biodiversity crisis and the planetary boundary concept (Peixoto et al. Nature Microbiology, 2022).

For more information see:

https://imoox.at/mooc/local/landingpage/course.php?shortname=microbiome&lang=en

https://www.tugraz.at/institute/ubt/home