Setaria seed endophytic bacterial microbiota

The major objective of this study was to test the role of bacteria associated with seeds for early plant growth and vitality. Our hypothesis is that seed microbiota are important for plant development, and thus the off-spring plants emerging from seeds harboring a microbial community with limited diversity are expected to have deficiencies and loose certain characteristics such as germination capacity. To test our hypothesis, we used Setaria viridis L. as a model plant and we harvested seeds of plants grown in a substrate with reduced microbial complexity for three consecutive generations and further assessed the bacterial community composition in seeds as well as seed germination and plant growth characteristics.本研究的核心目标为探究种子相关细菌在植物早期生长与活力维持中的作用。我们提出的假说为：种子微生物群（seed microbiota）对植物生长发育至关重要，因此从携带多样性受限微生物群落的种子萌发的子代植株，预计会出现生长缺陷并丧失部分特性（如种子萌发能力）。为验证该假说，本研究以狗尾草（Setaria viridis L.）作为模式植物，收获了在微生物复杂度降低的栽培基质中连续培育三代的植株所结的种子，并进一步评估了种子内的细菌群落组成、种子萌发情况及植物生长特性。