Host Plant Species Influences the Composition of Milkweed and Monarch Microbiomes.

ABSTRACT: Plants produce defensive chemicals for protection against insect herbivores that may also alter plant and insect associated microbial communities. However, it is unclear how expression of plant defenses impacts the assembly of insect and plant microbiomes, for example by enhancing communities for microbes that can metabolize defensive chemicals. Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) feed on milkweed species (Asclepias spp.) that vary in production of toxic cardiac glycosides, which could alter associated microbiomes. We therefore sought to understand how different milkweed species, with varying defensive chemical profiles, influence the diversity and composition of monarch and milkweed (root and leaf) bacterial communities. Using a metabarcoding approach, we compared rhizosp

SUBMITTER: Hansen TE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8908431 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature