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Poster

Session: Session 2 Presenting Authors at Posters (Odds)

P-347 - Identifying novel endohyphal bacteria to probe molecular interkingdom microbial interactions

Wednesday, July 16, 2025
13:30 - 15:15  
Location: Confex Hall 3
Plant microbiota functions and intermicrobial interactions

    Author(s)

  • DM

    Dallas Moses

    University of North Carolina at Charlotte
    Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

  • PD

    Paola Diaz-Matamoros

    University of North Carolina at Charlotte
    Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

    • Presenting Author(s)

  • MC

    Morgan E. Carter

    Assistant Professor
    University of North Carolina at Charlotte
    Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

Massive progress has been made in understanding plant immunity by using pathogens and mutualists as guides to the mechanisms involved. In fact, symbiosis provides a natural starting point for investigating a host organism, through the changes made by a closely interacting microbe. Increasingly, we observe that even microeukaryotes like fungi form intimate symbioses with bacteria, including harboring their own intracellular microbiome. However, we have few functionally characterized endohyphal bacteria (EHB) and few studies investigating which pathogenic fungi harbor them. To create a framework about the mechanisms and conditions leading to EHB colonization of fungi and changes to fungal metabolism, virulence, and reproduction, we sought to identify new EHB-fungal partnerships. We screened agriculturally important Fusarium spp. for intracellular bacteria via PCR and an optimized protocol for fluorescence in situ hybridization. We identified a novel Paenibacillus sp. isolated from the watermelon pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. niveum. After extracting the endobacteria into pure culture, we sequenced the genome to compare to plant growth promoting and soil-dwelling members of this genus. Plant pathogenicity assays with the fungus +/- EHB are underway to assess the impact of the bacterium on plant health. We expect to continue our research on this novel interaction to learn how Paenibacillus sp. colonizes host fungi and probe the understudied field of fungal immunity.