Eco-evolutionary dynamics of soil microbiomes for crop health

背景土壤微生物可以与植物相互作用，增强植物对病虫害的防御能力。人们已经在研究一组细菌在可持续农业中的潜力，但土壤中的细菌多样性极高，许多潜在有益的微生物尚未确定。植物自然地利用土壤微生物群，与专门的真菌建立共生关系，以获得长期利益，并招募有益细菌，以迅速对不断变化的非生物和生物条件做出反应。因此，产生的根际土壤适应于普遍的条件，并将包含对植物个体或整体有益的微生物群落。我们将使用植物-微生物-昆虫实验系统来研究适应、进化和生态动态对遭受地上汁液昆虫攻击的植物土壤微生物群的影响。土壤微生物组(细菌和真菌)将用代谢编码方法进行分析，土壤转录组学可以用来鉴定在选择下与生态相关的基因功能。通过实验进化土壤微生物群，以应对以植物为食的昆虫2。了解接种已知有益细菌对田间土壤对害虫侵袭的适应潜力的影响。探索通过一系列相互移植试验创造害虫抑制土壤的潜力新颖性和时效性利用土壤微生物群促进可持续农业是一个快速发展的领域，因为一个功能良好的土壤生态系统对作物健康的重要性正得到充分认识。使用生态进化方法来识别新的细菌和真菌可以最大限度地提高未来对多种环境的影响。从土壤中鉴定微生物及其功能的标准高通量技术的发展，现在使人们能够在生态和进化框架下研究土壤多样性的全部潜力。

BackgroundSoil microbes can interact with plants to enhance plant defence against pests and disease. A set of bacteria are already being studied for their potential in sustainable agriculture, yet bacterial diversity in soils is extremely high with many potentially beneficial microbes as yet uncharacterised. Plants naturally exploit the soil microbiome by establishing symbioses with specialised fungi for long-term benefits and recruiting beneficial bacteria to quickly respond to changing abiotic and biotic conditions. The resulting rhizosphere soil is therefore adapted to the prevalent conditions and will contain communities of microbes that are beneficial either individually or as a whole community for the plant.We will use a plant-microbe-insect experimental system to study the effects of adaptation, evolution and ecological dynamics on the soil microbiome of plants under attack from aboveground sap-feeding insects. The soil microbiome (bacteria and fungi) will be analysed using metabarcoding approaches, and soil transcriptomics can be used to identify the ecologically relevant gene functions under selection.Objectives1. To experimentally evolve soil microbiomes in response to insects feeding on the plants2. To understand the impact of inoculation of known beneficial bacteria on the adaptive potential of field soils to insect attack3. To explore the potential for creating pest suppressive soils through a set of reciprocal transplant experiments Novelty and TimelinessHarnessing soil microbiomes for sustainable agriculture is a quickly developing area, as the importance of a well-functioning soil ecosystem for crop health is being fully appreciated. Using eco-evolutionary approaches to identify novel bacteria and fungi can maximise future impacts across multiple environments. The development of standard high-throughput techniques for identifying microbes from soils, and their functions, now enables the full potential of soil diversity to be studied under an ecological and evolutionary framework