Microbiome of wheat and canola at different plant growth stages

Agricultural crops can establish neutral, deleterious and beneficial relationships with soilbacteria. Beneficial relationships have the potential to promote crop health and increased productivity. However, during various plant developmental processes a shift in the diversity and function of bacterial communities often occurs. Plant × bacteria interactions in the rhizosphere are well known; however, it is important to understand how plant × microbe interactions may influence the whole plant microbiome. This study investigated the diversity of bacterial communities associated with wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and canola (Brassica napus L.) at stem elongation, flowering and ripening stages. Wheat and canola were grown in an Orthic Brown Chernozem Calcic Kastanozem and Orthic Black Calcic Chernozem soils in a growth chamber. The soils were collected from agricultural fields in Saskatchewan, Canada and differed mainly in organic matter content, pH and texture. Phylogenetic analysis of the bacterial microbiome using 16S rRNA high throughput sequencing revealed that crop species and soils were the main factors affecting the community structure of rhizosphere and root endophytic bacteria, whereas, the aboveground plant compartments exhibited high variability in the bacteria community profiles. These results also suggest that plant growth stages canmodulate the diversity of rhizosphere and endophytic bacterial communities and that the influence of plant growth stages on the bacterial microbiome associated with wheat and canola was crop and organ specific.