Diversity and dynamics of seed microbiota during germination-emergence

Seeds carry complex microbial communities, which may exert beneficial or deleterious effects on plant growth and plant health. To date, the composition of microbial communities associated to seeds has been mainly explored through culture-based diversity studies and therefore remains largely unknown. In this work, we investigated the diversity of the bacterial and fungal communities associated to seeds of various plant species and the dynamic of these communities during germination and emergence. Our results highlighted that differences in composition of microbial communities associated to seed are mainly explain by abiotic factors rather than by the plant genotype. Moreover, this work also shows enrichment of specific microbial taxa during emergence, which constitute the primary source of microbial inoculum for young plants.