Genetic architecture of the response of Arabidopsis thaliana to a native plant-growth-promoting bacterial strain

Daniela Ramírez-Sánchez; Chrystel Gibelin-Viala; Fabrice Roux; Fabienne Vailleau

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1266032

Genetic architecture of the response of Arabidopsis thaliana to a native plant-growth-promoting bacterial strain

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Nov 9:14:1266032. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1266032. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Daniela Ramírez-Sánchez¹, Chrystel Gibelin-Viala¹, Fabrice Roux¹, Fabienne Vailleau¹

Affiliation

¹ LIPME, INRAE, CNRS, Université de Toulouse, Castanet-Tolosan, France.

Abstract

By improving plant nutrition and alleviating abiotic and biotic stresses, plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) can help to develop eco-friendly and sustainable agricultural practices. Besides climatic conditions, soil conditions, and microbe-microbe interactions, the host genotype influences the effectiveness of PGPB. Yet, most GWAS conducted to characterize the genetic architecture of response to PGPB are based on non-native interactions between a host plant and PGPB strains isolated from the belowground compartment of other plants. In this study, a GWAS was set up under in vitro conditions to describe the genetic architecture of the response of Arabidopsis thaliana to the PGPB Pseudomonas siliginis, by inoculating seeds of 162 natural accessions from the southwest of France with one strain isolated from the leaf compartment in the same geographical region. Strong genetic variation of plant growth response to this native PGPB was observed at a regional scale, with the strain having a positive effect on the vegetative growth of small plants and a negative effect on the vegetative growth of large plants. The polygenic genetic architecture underlying this negative trade-off showed suggestive signatures of local adaptation. The main eco-evolutionary relevant candidate genes are involved in seed and root development.

Keywords: GWA mapping; PGPB; Pseudomonas siliginis; negative tradeoff; seed inoculation; vegetative growth.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. DR-S was funded by a Ph.D. fellowship from CONACyT. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 951444-PATHOCOM). This study was performed at the LIPME belonging to the Laboratoire d’Excellence (LABEX) entitled TULIP (ANR-10-LABX-41).