Plant-microbial interactions on leaves: linking microbial biodiversity with plant traits, function, and biodiversity

植物与微生物的相互作用可能对植物的生态和进化产生重要影响，但由于近年来深入研究微生物多样性的分子方法的发展，我们对植物与微生物的相互作用模式及其过程的理解仍处于起步阶段。我的研究计划的长期目标是了解植物与微生物相互作用的生态学和进化。我的研究计划的短期目标是使用植物层圈（叶表面的微生物）作为模型系统来评估植物多样性与植物相关微生物在决定植物生长和适应性，群落结构和生态系统功能方面的相对重要性。我的实验室将采取多尺度的方法，结合对北方、温带和热带森林的植物和层层微生物群落的大规模调查和分析，以了解植物及其相关微生物群落相互作用的生态和进化过程，以及在实验室和野外进行的可操作实验，以了解植物-微生物相互作用的机制。我们将通过使用尖端的分子生物学和生物信息学方法直接从叶子中测序微生物DNA来量化微生物多样性。该研究将极大地扩展我们对植物-微生物相互作用机制及其在广阔空间和环境梯度上对森林生态系统功能的重要性的理解。除了测试关于植物-微生物关联的生态学和进化的基本假设外，该研究项目还将量化植物相关微生物群落作为生物地理尺度上的植物性状的重要性，并将允许更准确地预测全球变化情景对森林生态系统生物多样性和功能的影响。

Plant-microbe interactions may have important effects on the ecology and evolution of plants, but our understanding of patterns of plant-microbe associations and the processes responsible for these patterns are still in their infancy due to the recent development of molecular methods to study the biodiversity of microbes in-depth. The long-term objective of my research program is to understand the ecology and evolution of plant-microbe interactions. The short-term goal of my research program is to use the plant phyllosphere (microbes on leaf surfaces) as a model system to assess the relative importance of the diversity of plants versus plant-associated microbes for determining plant growth and fitness, community structure, and ecosystem function. My lab will take a multi-scale approach that will combine broad-scale surveys and analyses of plant and phyllosphere microbial communities in boreal, temperate, and tropical forests to understand the ecological and evolutionary processes responsible for the interaction of plants and their associated microbial communities, along with manipulative experiments in the lab and field to understand the mechanisms of plant-microbial interactions. We will quantify microbial diversity by sequencing microbial DNA directly from leaves using cutting-edge molecular biology and bioinformatics methods. The proposed research will greatly expand our understanding of the mechanisms of plant-microbe interactions and their importance for forest ecosystem function along broad spatial and environmental gradients. In addition to testing fundamental hypotheses about the ecology and evolution of plant-microbe associations, this research program will quantify the importance of plant-associated microbial communities as a plant trait at biogeographic scales, and will allow more accurate forecasting of the impacts of global change scenarios on forest ecosystem biodiversity and function.