A metacommunity ecology approach to understanding microbial community assembly in developing plant seeds.

ABSTRACT: Microorganisms have the potential to affect plant seed germination and seedling fitness, ultimately impacting plant health and community dynamics. Because seed-associated microbiota are highly variable across individual plants, plant species, and environments, it is challenging to identify the dominant processes that underlie the assembly, composition, and influence of these communities. We propose here that metacommunity ecology provides a conceptually useful framework for studying the microbiota of developing seeds, by the application of metacommunity principles of filtering, species interactions, and dispersal at multiple scales. Many studies in seed microbial ecology already describe individual assembly processes in a pattern-based manner, such as correlating seed microbiome compositio

SUBMITTER: Bergmann GE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9355165 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature