Floral microbiome modulated by Arabidopsis thaliana CYP706A3 expression

The flowers of Arabidopsis thaliana emit an essentially terpenic volatile bouquet, which has been associated to floral defense and interactions with pollinators and florivores. Boachon and collaborators have demonstrated that a promiscuous P450 (CYP706A3) reduces terpene volatile emission from Arabidopsis buds and opened flowers through conversion into terpene oxides that accumulates in tissues and impacting florivore insects and floral microbiome (Boachon et al., 2019, The Plant Cell). The effect of CYP706A3 on the composition of the floral microbiome was investigated by 16S rRNA sequencing of DNA from bacterial communities colonizing A. thaliania wild-type compared to cyp706a3-2 and 35S:CYP706A3 flowers, having impaired and increased CYP70A3 expression compared to wild-type, respectively and displaying altered accumulation of sesquiterpenes oxides.