Publications

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Publications in peer reviewed journals

3 Publications found
  • Exploring Actinobacteria Associated With Rhizosphere and Endosphere of the Native Alpine Medicinal Plant Subspecies .

    Oberhofer M, Hess J, Leutgeb M, Gössnitzer F, Rattei T, Wawrosch C, Zotchev SB
    2019 - Front Microbiol, 2531

    Abstract: 

    The rhizosphere of plants is enriched in nutrients facilitating growth of microorganisms, some of which are recruited as endophytes. Endophytes, especially Actinobacteria, are known to produce a plethora of bioactive compounds. We hypothesized that subsp. (Edelweiss), a rare alpine medicinal plant, may serve as yet untapped source for uncommon Actinobacteria associated with this plant. Rhizosphere soil of native Alpine plants was used, after physical and chemical pre-treatments, for isolating Actinobacteria. Isolates were selected based on morphology and identified by 16S rRNA gene-based barcoding. Resulting 77 Actinobacteria isolates represented the genera , , , , , , , and . In parallel, Edelweiss plants from the same location were surface-sterilized, separated into leaves, roots, rhizomes, and inflorescence and pooled within tissues before genomic DNA extraction. Metagenomic 16S rRNA gene amplicons confirmed large numbers of actinobacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) descending in diversity from roots to rhizomes, leaves and inflorescences. These metagenomic data, when queried with isolate sequences, revealed an overlap between the two datasets, suggesting recruitment of soil bacteria by the plant. Moreover, this study uncovered a profound diversity of uncultured Actinobacteria from Rubrobacteridae, Thermoleophilales, Acidimicrobiales and unclassified Actinobacteria specifically in belowground tissues, which may be exploited by a targeted isolation approach in the future.

  • A Bioinformatics Guide to Plant Microbiome Analysis.

    Lucaciu R, Pelikan C, Gerner SM, Zioutis C, Köstlbacher S, Marx H, Herbold CW, Schmidt H, Rattei T
    2019 - Front Plant Sci, 1313

    Abstract: 

    Recent evidence for intimate relationship of plants with their microbiota shows that plants host individual and diverse microbial communities that are essential for their survival. Understanding their relatedness using genome-based and high-throughput techniques remains a hot topic in microbiome research. Molecular analysis of the plant holobiont necessitates the application of specific sampling and preparatory steps that also consider sources of unwanted information, such as soil, co-amplified plant organelles, human DNA, and other contaminations. Here, we review state-of-the-art and present practical guidelines regarding experimental and computational aspects to be considered in molecular plant-microbiome studies. We discuss sequencing and "omics" techniques with a focus on the requirements needed to adapt these methods to individual research approaches. The choice of primers and sequence databases is of utmost importance for amplicon sequencing, while the assembly and binning of shotgun metagenomic sequences is crucial to obtain quality data. We discuss specific bioinformatic workflows to overcome the limitation of genome database resources and for covering large eukaryotic genomes such as fungi. In transcriptomics, it is necessary to account for the separation of host mRNA or dual-RNAseq data. Metaproteomics approaches provide a snapshot of the protein abundances within a plant tissue which requires the knowledge of complete and well-annotated plant genomes, as well as microbial genomes. Metabolomics offers a powerful tool to detect and quantify small molecules and molecular changes at the plant-bacteria interface if the necessary requirements with regard to (secondary) metabolite databases are considered. We highlight data integration and complementarity which should help to widen our understanding of the interactions among individual players of the plant holobiont in the future.

  • Man-made microbial resistances in built environments.

    Mahnert A, Moissl-Eichinger C, Zojer M, Bogumil D, Mizrahi I, Rattei T, Martinez JL, Berg G
    2019 - Nat Commun, 1: 968

    Abstract: 

    Antimicrobial resistance is a serious threat to global public health, but little is known about the effects of microbial control on the microbiota and its associated resistome. Here we compare the microbiota present on surfaces of clinical settings with other built environments. Using state-of-the-art metagenomics approaches and genome and plasmid reconstruction, we show that increased confinement and cleaning is associated with a loss of microbial diversity and a shift from Gram-positive bacteria, such as Actinobacteria and Firmicutes, to Gram-negative such as Proteobacteria. Moreover, the microbiome of highly maintained built environments has a different resistome when compared to other built environments, as well as a higher diversity in resistance genes. Our results highlight that the loss of microbial diversity correlates with an increase in resistance, and the need for implementing strategies to restore bacterial diversity in certain built environments.

Book chapters and other publications

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