Impact of swapping soils on the endophytic bacterial communities of pre-domesticated, ancient and modern maize.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Endophytes are microbes that live within plants such as maize (corn, Zea mays L.) without causing disease. It is generally assumed that most endophytes originate from soil. If this is true, then as humans collected, domesticated, bred and migrated maize globally from its native Mexico, they moved the species away from its native population of endophyte donors. The migration of maize persists today, as breeders collect wild and exotic seed (as sources of diverse alleles) from sites of high genetic diversity in Mexico for breeding programs on distant soils. When transported to new lands, it is unclear whether maize permits only selective colonization of microbes from the Mexican soils on which it co-evolved, tolerates shifts in soil-derived endophytes, or prevents coloniza

SUBMITTER: Johnston-Monje D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4189167 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature