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Poster

Session: Session 2 Presenting Authors at Posters (Odds)

P-237 - A ubiquitous role of the bacterial root microbiota and root-secreted coumarins in Arabidopsis iron nutrition at contrasting environmental pH conditions

Wednesday, July 16, 2025
13:30 - 15:15  
Location: Confex Hall 3
Nutrient exchange & role of metabolites in plant-microbe interactions

    Presenting Author(s)

  • MM

    Milena Malisic

    PhD student
    Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany
    Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    • Author(s)

  • CC

    Charles Copeland (he/him/his)

    Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
    Köln, GERMANY

  • AA

    Anton Amrhein

    Master student
    Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany
    Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

  • PZ

    Pengfan Zhang

    Postdoc
    Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley
    Berkeley, California, United States

  • SK

    Stanislav Kopriva

    Group Leader/Prof. Dr.
    Botanical Institute, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
    Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

  • SM

    Sabine Metzger

    Group leader
    Cologne Biocenter, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Mass Spectrometry Platform, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
    Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

  • RG

    Ruben Garrido-Oter

    Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
    Cologne, GERMANY

  • Nv

    Nicolaus von Wirén

    Director
    Leibniz-Institute of Plant Genetics & Crop Plant Research
    Gatersleben, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany

  • RG

    Ricardo F.H. Giehl

    Group leader
    Leibniz-Institute of Plant Genetics & Crop Plant Research
    Gatersleben, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany

  • PS

    Paul Schulze-Lefert

    Professor
    Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
    Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

Coumarins are a structurally and functionally diverse class of specialized metabolites in flowering plants that are secreted by roots in response to iron deprivation and play a key role in iron mobilization from soil. Environmental signals such as soil pH result in distinct coumarin secretion profiles and integration of this signal is important for effective iron uptake by roots. Although it is known that at circumneutral pH coumarins exuded by roots are essential for root microbiota-mediated mobilization of unavailable iron (Fe3+) in Arabidopsis thaliana, it remains unclear whether the bacterial root microbiota also contributes to plant iron nutrition at acidic pH. We show here that at circumneutral or acidic environmental pH, different coumarin structure types cooperatively interact with the root-associated bacterial microbiota, leading to increased iron mobilization either by Fe3+ chelation or Fe3+ reduction. Microbiota-mediated Fe3+ reduction at acidic pH eliminates the need for A. thaliana ferric chelate reductase, which is essential for the reduction of iron at the root surface of axenic plants. Collectively, our work indicates a ubiquitous role of the microbiota in iron mobilization from soil that becomes integrated in the adaptive response of the host to prevailing edaphic conditions.