Transmission of synthetic seed bacterial communities to radish seedlings: impact on microbiota assembly and seedling phenotype. SynCom Seed and Seedling Radish

This study investigated the role of seed microbiota in seedling microbiota assembly and fitness. We set up seed inoculation experiments to address the following objectives: Characterize the transmission of individual seed-borne bacteria or synthetic bacterial communities from seed to seedlings (here on radish plants) Determine whether individual seed-borne bacteria or synthetic bacterial communities can impact seedling phenotype. We selected 12 bacterial strains that are representative of radish seed microbiota that we studied individually or in communities (SynCom mix of 6, 8, or 12 strains) to monitor their transmission from seed to seedling and their impact on seedling phenotypes (germination, emergence) in in vitro conditions.