Protective role of the Arabidopsis leaf microbiota against a bacterial pathogen

The aerial parts of plants are host to taxonomically structured bacterial communities. Members of the core phyllosphere microbiota can protect Arabidopsis thaliana against foliar pathogens. However, whether plant protection is widespread and to what extent the modes of protection differ among phyllosphere microorganisms is not clear. Here, we present a systematic analysis of plant protection capabilities of the At-LSPHERE, which is a collection of >200 bacterial isolates from Arabidopsis thaliana, against the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000. In total 224 bacterial leaf isolates were individually assessed for plant protection in a gnotobiotic system. Protection against the pathogen varied with approximately 10% of leaf microbiota strains providing full protection, 10% showing intermediate levels of protection and the remaining 80% not markedly reducing disease phenotypes upon infection. The most protective strains were distributed across different taxonomic groups. Synthetic community experiments revealed additive effects of strains but also that a single strain can confer full protection in a community context. We also identify different mechanisms that contribute to plant protection. Although pattern-triggered immunity co-receptor signaling is involved in protection by a subset of strains, other strains protected in the absence of functional plant immunity receptors BAK1 and BKK1. Using a comparative genomics approach combined with mutagenesis, we reveal that direct bacteria-pathogen interactions contribute to plant protection by Rhizobium Leaf202. This shows that a computational approach based on the data provided can be used to identify genes of the microbiota that are important for plant protection.