Rhizosphere microorganisms can influence the timing of plant flowering

• DOI: 10.1186/s40168-018-0615-0
• Publication Date: 2018-12-26T12:41:00Z
• Authors: Tao Lu; Mingjing Ke; Michel Lavoie; Yujian Jin; Xiaoji Fan; Zhenyan Zhang; Zhengwei Fu; Liwei Sun; Michael Gillings; Josep Peñuelas; Haifeng Qian; Yong-Guan Zhu
• Keywords: Phyllosphere; Plant Physiology

Plant phenology has crucial biological, physical, and chemical effects on the biosphere. Phenological drivers have largely been studied, but role of plant microbiota, particularly rhizosphere not considered. We discovered that microbial communities could modulate timing flowering Arabidopsis thaliana. Rhizosphere microorganisms increased prolonged N bioavailability by nitrification delayed converting tryptophan to phytohormone indole acetic acid (IAA), thus downregulating genes trigger flowering, stimulating further growth. The addition IAA hydroponic cultures confirmed this metabolic network. document a novel network in which soil microbiota influenced time, shedding light key functioning. This opens up multiple opportunities for application, from helping mitigate some climate change environmental stress plants (e.g. abnormal temperature variation, drought, salinity) manipulating characteristics using inocula increase crop potential.