Responses of Phyllosphere Microbiome to Ozone Stress: Abundance, Community Compositions and Functions

Ozone is a typical hazardous pollutant in Earth’s lower atmosphere, but the phyllosphere and its microbiome are promising for air pollution remediation. Despite research to explore the efficiency and mechanism of ozone phylloremediation, the response and role of the phyllosphere microbiome remains untouched. In this study, we exposed Euonymus japonicus to different ozone levels and revealed microbial successions and roles of the phyllosphere microbiome during the exposure. The low-level exposure (156 ± 20 ppb) induced limited response compared to other environmental factors. Fungi failed to sustain the community richness and diversity, despite the stable ITS concentration, while bacteria witnessed an abundance loss. We subsequently elevated the exposure level to 5000~10,000 ppb, which considerably deteriorated the bacterial and fungal diversity. Our results identified extremely tolerant species, including bacterial genera (Curtobacterium, Marmoricola, and Microbacterium) and fungal genera (Cladosporium and Alternaria). Compositional differences suggested that most core fungal taxa were related to plant diseases and biocontrol, and ozone exposure might intensify such antagonism, thus possibly influencing plant health and ozone remediation. This assumption was further evidenced in the functional predictions via a pathogen predominance. This study shed light on microbial responses to ozone exposure in the phyllosphere and enlightened the augmentation of ozone phylloremediation through the microbial role.