Summary

The aerial surface of plants, the phyllosphere, is colo-nized by numerous bacteria displaying diverse meta-bolic properties that enable their survival in this specific habitat. Recently, we reported on the presence of microbial rhodopsin harbouring bacteria on the top of leaf surfaces. Here, we report on the presence of additional bacterial populations capable of harvesting light as a means of supplementing their metabolic requirements. An analysis of six phyllosphere meta-genomes revealed the presence of a diverse commu-nity of anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria, including the previously reported methylobacteria, as well as other known and unknown phototrophs. The presence of anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria was also con-firmed in situ by infrared epifluorescence microscopy. The microscopic enumeration correlated with esti-mates based on metagenomic analyses, confirming both the presence and high abundance of these micro-organisms in the phyllosphere. Our data suggest that the phyllosphere contains a phylogenetically diverse assemblage of phototrophic species, including some yet undescribed bacterial clades that appear to be phyllosphere-unique