The effect of rootstock-scion combination on microbiome selection by fruit plants
Internship Description
Workshop Description
Grafting is a common
agronomic practice performed on different fruit plants such as, among others,
apple tree, other Rosaceae and grapevine. It is used for improving the fruit
cultivar adaptation to specific soil and for controlling some plant parasites.
The rootstock affects scion development by influencing the reproductive
performance, vigor, biomass accumulation and distribution in the plant,
phenology and fruit yield. Moreover, a recent publication highlighted that
rootstock type influences the recruitment by plants of microorganisms from the
soil, which can be defined as the ‘seed-bank’ for root microbiome assemblages
(Marasco et al., 2018, Microbiome 6:3. Doi 10.1186/s40168-017-0391-2).
An aspect that is still overlooked is if and how the rootstock-scion
combination affect the recruitment of the microbiome and their migration and
colonization of the tissues in different plant compartments and organs. A
deeper knowledge on this aspect is pivotal to better understand the factors
steering the recruitment and the flux of microorganisms from the soil through
the roots and within the plant compartments. Moreover, it would be interesting
to unravel which rootstock-scion combinations can primarily influence the fruit
quality, by inferring the functional diversity of the selected microbiome
starting from high-throughput Illumina 16S rRNA gene sequencing.
To investigate the community structure of the endophytic microbiome in different
plant compartments (e.g. root, shoot, leaf, fruit) comparing several
combinations of rootstock-scion pairs. The research will be conducted on fruit
trees, e.g. grapevine, and the bulk soil (i.e. the soil not affected by root
exudates) will be used as the reference microbial ‘seed-bank’.
Deliverables/Expectations
Deliverables
-Creation of 16S rRNA gene
libraries from soil and plant metagenomes for the description of the structure
and taxonomy of the bacterial community associated to different plant
compartments and to the bulk soil
- Quali/quantitative identification of the bacterial taxa present in 16S rRNA
libraries
- Study of the alpha- and beta-diversity of the microbiome in different plant
compartments according to the rootstock-scion combinations.
Faculty Name
Daniele Daffonchio
Field of Study
Field Of Study
Plant-microbe interactions