Patterns of microbial load and assembly in leaf microbiomes of summer and overwintering crops

To assess the temporal abundance and community dynamics of members of the genus Methylobacterium in agricultural systems, we characterized seasonal shifts in Methylobacterium-specific and total phyllosphere bacterial loads and community structure on two common summer crops and one overwintering cover crop. Leaf samples of Zea mays (corn), Glycine max (soybean), and Thlaspi arvense (pennycress) plants were collected over one year in Minnesota, US and analyzed with host-associated microbial PCR (hamPCR).