Effects of aphid herbivory on oak-associated microbiomes is soil community dependent

Host-associated microbes have strong effects on hosts health and ecological role in both the plant and animal kingdom. The high number of factors shaping microbiome assemblages cause difficulties studying interactions between plant and animal holobionts on microbial community level, and little is known about multiple host interactions. This study aims to identify bacterial and fungal community responses due to aphid herbivory in a tripartite soil-plant-aphid system, by excluding physicochemical properties of soil as a variable, while providing different natural microbial soil communities and only the seedling connecting above- and belowground plant parts.