Impact of inter-species interactions between flower microbiota commensals and a floral pathogen on disease incidence and pathogen activity

Abstract

Flowers are colonized by a diverse community of microorganisms that alter plant health and interact with floral pathogens. Erwinia amylovora is a flower-inhabiting bacterium and a pathogen that infects different plant species, including Malus x domestica (apple). Previously, we showed that the co-inoculation of two bacterial strains, Pseudomonas and Pantoea natural inhabitants of apple flowers, reduced disease incidence caused by this floral pathogen. Here, we decipher the ecological interactions between these two flower-associated bacteria and E. amylovora in field experimentation and in vitro co-cultures. The two flower microbiota strains did not competitively exclude E. amylovora from the stigma habitat, as both commensal bacteria and the pathogen co-existed on the apple flowers, proscribing microbial antibiosis or niche exclusion as predominant mechanisms of host protection. Inspection of the total and the active microbiota populations on flowers revealed that strain co-inoculations altered microbiota activity. Using synthetic stigma exudation medium, tripartite co-culture of the bacterial strains strongly acidified the growth milieu and led to a substantial alteration of gene expression in both the pathogen and the two microbiota members. Our study emphasizes the critical role of emergent properties mediated by inter-species interactions within the plant holobiont and their impact on plant health and pathogen behavior. ImportanceFire blight, caused by Erwinia amylovora, is one of the most important plant diseases of pome fruits. Plant-associated microbiota can influence plant disease occurrence through inter-species interactions. Previous studies have shown that plant microbiota commensals could suppress disease mainly by antagonizing of the pathogen growth, however, whether plant-associated microbiota could alter pathogen activity and behavior have not been well studied. Here, we show that the co-inoculation of two bacterial strains that naturally colonize the apple flowers reduce disease pressure. We further demonstrate that the interactions between these two microbiota commensals and the floral pathogen lead to a strong alteration of the pH and to the emergence of new gene expression patterns that may alter the pathogen behavior. Our findings emphasize the critical role of emergent properties mediated by inter-species interactions between plant microbiota and plant pathogens and their impact on plant health.