Life on leaves : uncovering temporal dynamics in Arabidopsis’ leaf microbiota

Abstract Leaves are primarily responsible for the plant’s photosynthetic activity. Thus, changes in the phyllosphere microbiota, which includes deleterious and beneficial microbes, can have far reaching effects on plant fitness and productivity. In this context, identifying the processes and microorganisms that drive the changes in the leaf microbiota over a plant’s lifetime is crucial. In this study we analyzed the temporal dynamics in the leaf microbiota of Arabidopsis thaliana , integrating both compositional changes and changes in microbe-microbe interactions via the study of microbial networks. Field-grown Arabidopsis were used to follow leaf bacterial, fungal and oomycete communities, throughout the plant’s growing season (extending from November to March), over three consecutive years. Our results revealed the existence of conserved time patterns, with microbial communities and networks going through a stabilization phase (decreasing diversity and variability) at the beginning of the plant’s growing season. Despite a high turnover in these communities, we identified 19 ‘core’ taxa persisting in Arabidopsis leaves across time and plant generations. With the hypothesis these microbes could be playing key roles in the structuring of leaf microbial communities, we conducted a time-informed microbial network analysis which showed core taxa are not necessarily highly connected network ‘hubs’ and ‘hubs’ alternate with time. Our study shows that leaf microbial communities exhibit reproducible dynamics and patterns, suggesting it could be possible to predict and drive these microbial communities to desired states