Corn's internal clock shapes which bacteria live on its leaves
Dos Santos RAC, Hidalgo-Martinez K, Muñoz-Perez JM, Laspisa DJ, Li C
Plant Signaling
Every leaf in your garden hosts an invisible community of bacteria, and this study shows the plant's own day-night rhythm actively recruits and reshuffles those microbial residents rather than just tolerating whoever lands there.
Corn plants have internal clocks, just like people do, and this study shows those clocks don't just control when leaves photosynthesize or respond to heat, they also seem to influence which bacteria set up camp on the leaf surface. Researchers compared corn samples taken at midday and midnight and found the bacterial communities shifted noticeably between the two times, and nighttime showed many more links between specific plant genes and specific bacteria than daytime did. It's early evidence that a plant's daily rhythm helps steer its own microbiome.
Key Findings
Circadian clock gene expression patterns in maize matched expected sampling times (midday vs. midnight), confirming the diurnal sampling design worked as intended.
Bacterial community composition (beta diversity) shifted significantly between midday and midnight, even though overall diversity (alpha diversity) changed only modestly.
Cross-correlation analysis found more host gene-to-microbe associations at night than during the day, with several canonical circadian clock genes significantly correlated with specific bacterial taxa.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found that corn plants' internal daily clocks are linked to which bacteria live on their leaves, with far more connections between plant gene activity and microbe abundance happening at night than during the day. This suggests the plant's own biological rhythms help shape its microbial neighbors, not just the other way around.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Diurnal dynamics of maize gene expression is associated with phyllosphere microbiome composition.
Bacterial communities play important roles in the plant phyllosphere. Both microbial communities and their hosts exhibit endogenous circadian rhythms while simultaneously responding to environmenta...
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