Breeding of microbiomes conferring salt tolerance to plants
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40168_2025_Article_2261.pdf
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2.02 MB
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Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Guilherme Pereira, Caio
Edwards, Joseph A.
Khasanova, Albina
Carlson, Alexis
Brisson, Vanessa
Schaefer, Estelle
Glavina del Rio, Tijana
Tringe, Susannah
Vogel, John P.
Des Marais, David L.
Date Issued
November 27, 2025
Journal
Microbiome
Publisher
BioMed Central
Citation
Guilherme Pereira, C., Edwards, J.A., Khasanova, A. et al. Breeding of microbiomes conferring salt tolerance to plants. Microbiome 13, 244 (2025).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Background Microbiome breeding through host-mediated selection is a technique to artificially select for microbiomes conferring beneficial properties to plants. Using a systematic selection protocol that maximises the heritability of microbiome effects, transmission fidelity, and microbiome stability through multiple selection cycles, we previously developed root-associated microbial communities conferring sodium and aluminium tolerance to Brachypodium distachyon, a model for cereal crops. Here, we explore the physiological mechanisms underlying our selected microbiomes’ effect on plant fitness and analyse how our selection protocol shaped the composition and structure of these microbiomes. We analysed the effects of our selected microbiomes on plant fitness and tissue-nutrient concentration, then used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to examine microbial community composition and co-occurrence network patterns. Results Our sodium-selected microbiomes reduced leaf sodium concentration by ~ 50%, whereas the aluminium-selected microbiomes had no effect on leaf-tissue nutrient concentration, suggesting different mechanisms underlying the microbiome-mediated stress tolerance. By testing the selected microbiomes in a cross-fostering experiment, we show that our artificially selected microbiomes attained (a) ecological robustness contributing to transplantability (i.e. inheritance) of microbiome-encoded effects between plants; and (b) network features identifying key bacteria promoting salt-stress tolerance. Conclusions Combined, these findings elucidate critical mechanisms underlying host-mediated artificial selection as a framework to breed microbiomes with targeted benefits for plants under salt stresses, with significant implications for sustainable agriculture.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-025-02261-0
