Quantifying how host genotype and microbiome composition combine to influence susceptibility to Dothistroma needle blight disease in pine trees.

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A key challenge in plant disease research is to understand how the interactions between the plant host and its associated microbiome (the bacteria, fungi and viruses that exist within/on the plant) affect plant disease incidence and severity. These interactions are affected by genetic variation in the host, environmental conditions, and the variety microbes in the host's microbiome. For this project we focus on the pine tree disease Dothistroma needle blight (DNB), that detrimentally affects the growth and life span of pine species worldwide. As trees will also play a critical role in combatting our current biodiversity and climate crises, an understanding of the factors governing the arrival and spread of tree diseases, and how they impact tree health, are important policy strategies. Innovative research on tree health, as proposed in our project, will deliver to these strategies.DNB is caused by Dothistroma septosporum, a UK listed quarantine fungus that is now found worldwide, where it affects more than 100 tree species including the commercial timber species Scots pine, Corsican pine and Lodgepole pine. DNB is a foliar disease affecting the pine needles that causes a variety of symptoms including premature needle loss. These symptoms result in reduced timber yields and can cause tree death. Currently the only treatment for DNB is tree stand management to reduce the favourable conditions for spread and the use of fungicides on nursery trees. In this project we will test our hypothesis that the genetics of the host tree drives microbiome composition and interactions of the pine needles to alter the trees susceptibility to DNB. To achieve this we will combine existing host genetic data from our established Scots pine tree trial with new nucleic acid sequencing information on the pine needle microbiome. We will use meta-genomic and meta-transcriptomic sequencing. Meta-genomic sequencing provides a microbe inventory ("what is there?") and meta-transcriptomic sequencing tell us which community members are active ("what are they doing?"). We have three specific objectives 1) quantify the extent to which host genetic variation explains variation in microbial community composition and susceptibility to DNB, (2) evaluate temporal variation in microbiome composition and function during D. septosporum infection and (3) predict which microbiome community members interact with D. septosporum and which impact on host susceptibility to DNB.Our proposal addresses key challenges within the BBSRC integrative microbiome research priority (1) relating host genotype to microbiome composition and health status, and (2) characterising functional properties of the microbiome and the genes driving the microbiome-host relationship. The benefits of this proposal are two-fold: (a) we will understand how host genetics and microbiome composition combine to influence susceptibility to DNB disease in pine trees and (b) we will develop publicly available methods to integrate multi-omics (metagenomics, meta-transcriptomics and genotyping) data which will be directly applicable to many different host-microbiome systems, from plants to humans. The project will benefit forest researchers with interests in tree disease management and agricultural researchers with interests in the effect of crop genetics on microbiomes and crop disease incidence and severity. The project will also benefit computational biologists and biologists integrating metagenomics, transcriptomics and genotyping datasets to answers diverse biological questions.