Journal
JOURNAL OF EUKARYOTIC MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 63, Issue 5, Pages 635-641Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/jeu.12314
Keywords
18S; Arabidopsis; Cercomonas; cloning; environmental sequencing; phyllosphere; protist
Categories
Funding
- DFG Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences CEPLAS [EXC 1028]
- NERC [NE/H000887/1]
- NERC [NE/H009426/1, NE/H000887/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/H009426/1, NE/H000887/1] Funding Source: researchfish
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The largest biological surface on earth is formed by plant leaves. These leaf surfaces are colonized by a specialized suite of leaf-inhabiting microorganisms, recently termed phyllosphere microbiome. Microbial prey, however, attract microbial predators. Protists in particular have been shown to structure bacterial communities on plant surfaces, but virtually nothing is known about the community composition of protists on leaves. Using newly designed specific primers targeting the 18S rDNA gene of Cercozoa, we investigated the species richness of this common protist group on leaves of four Brassicaceae species from two different locations in a cloning-based approach. The generated sequences revealed a broad diversity of leaf-associated Cercozoa, mostly bacterial feeders, but also including known plant pathogens and a taxon of potential endophytes that were recently described as algal predators in freshwater systems. This initial study shows that protists must be regarded as an integral part of the microbial diversity in the phyllosphere of plants.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available