Data from: Spatially-explicit depiction of a floral epiphytic bacterial community reveals role for environmental filtering within petals

The microbiome of flowers (anthosphere) is an understudied compartment of
the plant microbiome. Within the flower, petals represent a heterogeneous
environment for microbes in terms of resources and environmental stress.
Yet little is known of drivers of structure and function of the epiphytic
microbial community at the within-petal scale. We characterized the petal
microbiome in two co-flowering plants that differ in pattern of
ultraviolet (UV) absorption along their petals. Bacterial communities were
similar between plant hosts, with only rare phylogenetically distant
species contributing to differences. The epiphyte community was highly
culturable (75% of families) lending confidence to the spatially-explicit
isolation and characterization of bacteria. In one host, petals were
heterogeneous in UV absorption along their length and in these there was a
negative relationship between growth rate and position on the petal, as
well as lower UV tolerance in strains isolated from the UV absorbing base
than from UV reflecting tip. A similar pattern was not seen in microbes
isolated from a second host whose petals had uniform patterning along
their length. Across strains, variation in carbon utilization and chemical
tolerance followed common phylogenetic patterns. This work highlights the
value of petals for spatially-explicit explorations of bacteria of the
anthosphere.