MCA: Using metatranscriptomics to uncover mechanisms underlying drought-mediated plant-microbe interactions that influence plant community structure

University Of Houston, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

Plants live with a large number and diversity of microbes that influence plant health. Some microbes help plants by providing nutrients, whereas others can have negative effects like causing disease. Plants, in turn, influence the presence or absence of certain microbes in the soil, with individual plant species creating unique microbial signatures. This allows for a situation where plant-associated changes in microbial communities feedback to influence plant health. These plant-soil feedbacks can play an important role in processes ranging from structuring natural plant communities and impacting crop performance. Practically all microbes are sensitive to changes in the environment, and changes in weather, such as drought, can impact plant-soil feedbacks. While experiments have shown that plant-soil feedbacks are mediated by microbes, it is often unclear which microbial taxa or what microbial functions are causing the feedbacks. This knowledge gap limits the ability to generalize results or make targeted management recommendations. To help fill this gap, the investigator will pair a relatively new molecular tool, metatranscriptomics, with classic plant-soil feedback experiments that manipulate the presence of drought. Metatranscriptomics will provide a way to analyze microbial gene expression in the soil, identifying active microbes and their functions that change with drought. Results of this work will have direct applications for predicting and mitigating the effects of drought on an economically and culturally important ecosystem, Texas grasslands. This work will give a mid-career scientist the opportunity to learn a new molecular tool, enhancing the scientist’s career goals harnessing plant-microbe interactions to develop targeted solutions for environmental problems. This project will also provide training to graduate and postbaccalaureate students on bioinformatics and the analysis of metatranscriptomic datasets. This project has two major components. First, a greenhouse-based plant-soil feedback experiment will test how drought influences the composition of active microbial taxa and microbial gene expression associated with plants growing in conspecific and heterospecific soils. Second, an experiment will test for functional redundancy in microbial responses to drought using soils from across a natural precipitation gradient in Texas. This mid-career advancement award will provide protected time and training for the PI to learn metatranscriptomic techniques and data analysis, as well as provide training opportunities for graduate and postbaccalaureate students. Given plant-soil feedback theory's success at integrating plant-microbe interactions into the framework of plant community ecology, deeper insights into microbial mechanisms underlying plant-soil feedbacks may transform our understanding of how plant communities are structured and plant diversity is maintained. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.