Transcriptome project to study the canopy bark microbiome

More than 3 trillion trees exist on earth and their canopies form spatially huge and heterogeneous habitats for the colonization of microorganisms. However, our understanding of the aboveground plant microbiome of trees remains limited. To address this knowledge gap, we explored the entire living microbiome of oak, lime and maple using a primer-independent shotgun metatranscriptomic approach.