Microbiome of medicinal plants

Microbial populations reside in close contact with plants, in the rhizosphere below-ground and in the phyllosphere above-ground as epiphytes on the aerial plant surface or as endophyte into the plant tissue. Both, plants and there microbial community constitute an entity, which is driven by plant species and formed by the environment. We elucidate the epi- and endophytic bacterial and fungal microbiome of two medicinal plants Achillea millefolium and Hamamelis virginiana during the growing season. We extended the investigations of A. millefolium by including buds and flower, and a comparison of four different locations. The taxonomy of community compositions were analysed by Illumina-MiSeq sequencing of the 16S rRNA-gene and ITS-gene respectively.